Utah Miners Top News Interest

For the second week in a row, the plight of six miners trapped in a Utah mine dominated public interest. Though coverage of the miners fell off significantly from the previous week, 32% of the public paid very close attention to the story and roughly the same proportion (34%) said this was the single news story they followed more closely than any other. News of the trapped miners and efforts to rescue them accounted for 7% of the national newshole last week, down from 13% the previous week.

Americans continued to pay close attention to news from Iraq last week, while media coverage of events there remained relatively low. War news was followed very closely by one-in-three Americans (33%) and 16% said this was the story they followed most closely. Interest in the war is largely unchanged from the previous week when 36% were following news from Iraq very closely.

Read the full article Utah Miners Top News Interest at the Pew Research Center for People and the Press Web site.