Public Blames Media for Too Much Celebrity Coverage

by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=346

A report released August 2, 2007 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that an overwhelming majority of the public (87%) says celebrity scandals receive too much news coverage. A majority of those who say celebrity news is over-covered blame news organizations for giving the stories too much visibility

Here's a summary of report highlights:

An overwhelming majority of the public (87%) says celebrity scandals receive too much news coverage. This criticism generally holds across most major demographic and political groups. Virtually no one thinks there is too little coverage of celebrity scandals. When asked who is most to blame for the amount of coverage these kinds of stories receive, a majority of the public points to the media. Fully 54% of those who say celebrity news is over-covered also believe news organizations are to blame for giving these stories so much coverage. Roughly a third (32%) say the public is to blame for paying so much attention to them, and another 12% say the media and the public are both equally to blame. Men and women generally agree on this question, although women tend to follow tabloid stories more closely than do men (52% of men and 55% of women blame news organizations for all the coverage). Republicans and Democrats also agree on this issue – though Republicans are often more critical of media practices (57% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats blame the media for too much tabloid news). One noteworthy difference in opinion on the question of who is to blame for tabloid news coverage can be seen across age groups. Young people blame the public more than the news media. Nearly half of those under age 30 say it's the public's appetite for scandal news that spurs the amount of coverage, 31% say news organizations are to blame. Among those over age 30, large majorities blame the media, while less than 30% blame the public...

Click here to view this report in its entirety on the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press website.