PEJ News Coverage Index: Sept. 28 - Oct. 4, 2009, An Overseas Focus Drives the News Agenda

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PEJ News Coverage Index: Sept. 28 - Oct. 4, 2009, An Overseas Focus Drives the News Agenda

For the second week in a row, there was a distinctly international flavor to the news. Last week, it came as the Obama administration confronted two major foreign policy challenges and lobbied, unsuccessfully, for the world's athletes to come to Chicago in 2016.

Three of the top five stories in last week's news agenda were based overseas and accounted for almost one-quarter of the overall coverage. Two involved major U.S. domestic policy issues and filled about one-fifth of the newshole.

The No. 2 story was the situation regarding Iran, which filled 10% of the newshole from September 28-October 4, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The week began with news of new missile tests by Tehran and ended with negotiations—at a very uncertain stage—that may represent the last serious effort at resolving concerns about Iran's nuclear program through diplomacy. 

Read the full report An Overseas Focus Drives the News Agenda on the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism Web site.

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