2009’s US news stories (and a dog that didn’t bark…)

by | Jan 3, 2010


So here’s a map of last year’s news stories in the US. The size of the box corresponds to the extent of coverage in 55 US news sources – print, TV, radio and internet – as tracked by the website Journalism.org.  (Here’s the full, zoomable high-res version.) 

Newsmap

Can you spot what’s missing? Answer after the jump.

Yup: climate change. In fact, as the NYT’s Andrew Revkin points out, environmental issues as a whole, including climate, ran to a total of just 1.5 per cent of US news coverage last year. Not the most hopeful starting point for trying to resurrect prospects of a global deal in the wake of Copenhagen (and btw in case you missed it, here’s another link to David and my Brookings analysis of Copenhagen and what needs to come next).

That said, the festive period did also see one very positive development on the climate front during the festive period – on which more tomorrow. For now: happy new year!

Author

  • Alex Evans is founder of Larger Us, which explores how we can use psychology to reduce political tribalism and polarisation, a senior fellow at New York University, and author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough? (Penguin, 2017). He is a former Campaign Director of the 50 million member global citizen’s movement Avaaz, special adviser to two UK Cabinet Ministers, climate expert in the UN Secretary-General’s office, and was Research Director for the Business Commission on Sustainable Development. Alex lives with his wife and two children in Yorkshire.

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