Marinesg1012
03-14-2005, 02:59 AM
I think this is biased since it is written by an AP reporter but I wil let you draw your own conclusions:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=494&u=/ap/20050313/ap_en_tv/news_study&printer=1
Report: Iraq Coverage Wasn't Biased
Sun Mar 13, 2:19 PM ET
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
NEW YORK - A study of news coverage of the war in Iraq (news - web sites) fails to support a conclusion that events were portrayed either negatively or positively most of the time.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at nearly 2,200 stories on television, newspapers and Web sites and found that most of them couldn't be categorized either way.
Twenty-five percent of the stories were negative and 20 percent were positive, according to the study, released Sunday by the Washington-based think tank.
Despite the exhaustive look, the study likely won't change the minds of war supporters who considered the media hostile to the Bush administration, or opponents who think reporters weren't questioning enough, said Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director.
"There was enough of both to annoy both camps," he said. "But the majority of stories were just news."
Rosenstiel said most people understand the complexities of what is going on in Iraq, how continued suicide bombings can happen at the same time as a successful election.
The three network evening newscasts tended to be more negative than positive, while the opposite was true of morning shows, the study said. Fox News Channel was twice as likely to be positive than negative, unlike the more evenhanded CNN and MSNBC, the study said.
A more limited look at campaign coverage found that 36 percent of stories on President Bush (news - web sites) were negative, compared to 12 percent for Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites). Stories were positive 20 percent of the time for Bush, 30 percent for Kerry, said the project, which examined some 250 stories for tone.
"I don't know whether this was because he was the incumbent or because a lot of the coverage of the campaign was filtered through events in Iraq," Rosenstiel said. "It's probably a little of both."
The project's annual study of the state of journalism found that the idea of categorizing people as getting their news primarily from television or newspapers is becoming outdated. A Pew Research Center poll of 3,000 people last spring found that more than one-third of news consumers regularly check out at least four different kinds of news outlets, among the Web, newspapers, magazines, radio and local, national or cable TV.
Americans are now "news grazers," the study said.
Throw in Web logs, and "everyone is getting this sort of Mixmaster blend of journalism," Rosenstiel said. "Traditional journalism is a smaller part of that mix than it used to be."
Yet the project found that much of the investment in the news business goes to packaging information instead of gathering it. More than half of people at Web news organizations surveyed by Pew said they had seen cutbacks in their newsrooms over the past three years.
The notion that Americans are headed toward a more partisan form of news consumption isn't borne out by research, Rosenstiel said. With the exception of Republican cable news viewers who prefer Fox, most media consumption mirrors the population in general.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism is affiliated with the Columbia University School of Journalism. The study was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=494&u=/ap/20050313/ap_en_tv/news_study&printer=1
Report: Iraq Coverage Wasn't Biased
Sun Mar 13, 2:19 PM ET
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
NEW YORK - A study of news coverage of the war in Iraq (news - web sites) fails to support a conclusion that events were portrayed either negatively or positively most of the time.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at nearly 2,200 stories on television, newspapers and Web sites and found that most of them couldn't be categorized either way.
Twenty-five percent of the stories were negative and 20 percent were positive, according to the study, released Sunday by the Washington-based think tank.
Despite the exhaustive look, the study likely won't change the minds of war supporters who considered the media hostile to the Bush administration, or opponents who think reporters weren't questioning enough, said Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director.
"There was enough of both to annoy both camps," he said. "But the majority of stories were just news."
Rosenstiel said most people understand the complexities of what is going on in Iraq, how continued suicide bombings can happen at the same time as a successful election.
The three network evening newscasts tended to be more negative than positive, while the opposite was true of morning shows, the study said. Fox News Channel was twice as likely to be positive than negative, unlike the more evenhanded CNN and MSNBC, the study said.
A more limited look at campaign coverage found that 36 percent of stories on President Bush (news - web sites) were negative, compared to 12 percent for Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites). Stories were positive 20 percent of the time for Bush, 30 percent for Kerry, said the project, which examined some 250 stories for tone.
"I don't know whether this was because he was the incumbent or because a lot of the coverage of the campaign was filtered through events in Iraq," Rosenstiel said. "It's probably a little of both."
The project's annual study of the state of journalism found that the idea of categorizing people as getting their news primarily from television or newspapers is becoming outdated. A Pew Research Center poll of 3,000 people last spring found that more than one-third of news consumers regularly check out at least four different kinds of news outlets, among the Web, newspapers, magazines, radio and local, national or cable TV.
Americans are now "news grazers," the study said.
Throw in Web logs, and "everyone is getting this sort of Mixmaster blend of journalism," Rosenstiel said. "Traditional journalism is a smaller part of that mix than it used to be."
Yet the project found that much of the investment in the news business goes to packaging information instead of gathering it. More than half of people at Web news organizations surveyed by Pew said they had seen cutbacks in their newsrooms over the past three years.
The notion that Americans are headed toward a more partisan form of news consumption isn't borne out by research, Rosenstiel said. With the exception of Republican cable news viewers who prefer Fox, most media consumption mirrors the population in general.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism is affiliated with the Columbia University School of Journalism. The study was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.