News Interest Index: Health Care Reform News Tops Public Interest

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News Interest Index: Health Care Reform News Tops Public Interest

The debate over health care reform was the news story followed most closely by the American public last week, though the media devoted more coverage to the investigation into the shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base.

About a quarter (27%) of the public say they followed news about health care reform more closely than any other news story last week. In addition, the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted November 13-16 among 1,004 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, finds that half of Americans (50%) say they have heard a lot about the debate over whether or not health care reform will include a government-run public option. The public has heard somewhat less about other debates surrounding health care reform. 

Coverage of the health care debate filled 11% of the newshole last week, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). The Fort Hood shootings received more coverage (20%), while 21% of the public followed the investigation into the killings more closely than any other news in the week following the Nov. 5 rampage.

Read the full report Health Care Reform News Tops Public Interest on the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press' Web site.

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