(New York Jewish Week) - Jonathan Mark According to a study by the Pew Research Center for the Public and the Press, Israel's war was "one of the most closely followed international stories in Pew's 16-year history of measuring news attentiveness." Additionally, the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) found that between the end of March and the end of June 2002 -- corresponding to the mass murder at the Netanya seder and Israel's retaliatory actions -- Israel's war was the subject of more cumulative airtime on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news than the next nine stories combined. Interest peaked in the spring, said Pew, when more than 44 percent of Americans said they tracked Israel's war "very closely," and another 33 percent "fairly closely," but in December the most intense interest slipped to 29 percent, still unusually high. The Oslo peace agreement had only 23 percent of Americans paying very close attention, and interest in the first intifada ranged only between 11-18 percent, according to surveys at the time.
2003-01-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive