News Interest Index: Gulf Oil Leak Dominates Public's News Interests

Report Read time:
News Interest Index: Gulf Oil Leak Dominates Public's News Interests

As oil from an undersea well continued to flow into the Gulf of Mexico last week, Americans tracked the worsening environmental disaster much more closely than any other major news story.

About half (49%) say this was the story they followed most closely. Press coverage was divided between the oil leak (17% of coverage) and Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court (13%); just 5% of the public cited Kagan's nomination as their top story of the week.

Read the full report, Gulf Oil Leak Dominates Public's News Interests, on the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press' Web site.

MORE FROM PEW

Philadelphia 2025: The State of The City
Hundreds of blue fishing boats are docked in a busy port, with port buildings in the distance and the sun rising through gray clouds. China Joins Treaty to Fight Illegal Fishing
A Complex Landscape Requires Pension Management Review
A scientist, wearing a blue collared shirt and dark blazer, stares intently at a long aquarium that contains corals and small fish. How Biomedical Innovation Is Powering Marine Conservation