In Media Coverage, Deficit Eclipses Unemployment

Major newspapers shift focus from unemployment to the deficit, National Journal analysis shows.

Updated: May 16, 2011 | 6:05 p.m. 

By Clifford Marks

May 16, 2011 | 3:06 p.m.

Major U.S. newspapers have increasingly shifted their attention away from coverage of unemployment in recent months while greatly intensifying their focus on the deficit, a National Journal analysis shows.

The analysis -- based on a measure of how often the words "unemployment" and "deficit" appear in major publications -- portrays a dramatically shifting landscape of coverage over the past two years, as the debate over how to fix the federal deficit has risen to prominence and the question of how to handle still-high unemployment has faded from the media's consciousness.

National Journal compiled counts of articles that mention one of the words in their headline or first sentences in the five largest newspapers in the country by print circulation -- a group that consists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post. The data was taken over a period of roughly two years from April 15, 2009, to May 15, 2011, using LexisNexis, a news information service. The numbers exclude mentions that also used the words Europe(an) and Greece or Greek in an effort to focus solely on the domestic debate, though even with those included, the trend was not materially different.

Mentions of unemployment have been dwindling since they spiked to 154 in the month ending August 15, 2010; over the month ending Sunday, there were 63. Deficit mentions, meanwhile, surged up to 261 in the month ending December 15, 2010, when the leaders of President Obama's deficit commission released their final report. Mentions of the deficit remained higher after the commission's work wrapped up and as House Republicans and then the White House unveiled dueling proposals. In the month ending Sunday, there were 201 mentions.

To be sure, the decline in unemployment articles coincided with a one-half-percentage-point decrease in the headline unemployment rate as well as materially better payroll job growth, but the labor market remains fragile and the pace of its recovery far from sufficient.

More likely, the broadening gap demonstrates just how effective conservatives have been at changing the narrative of economic policy from one dominated by talk of fiscal stimulus to one now in lockstep with notions of fiscal austerity.

That major newspapers and other media outlets have covered the deficit with greater intensity in recent months should come as no surprise given the focus of the politicians and policymakers they cover. The declining mentions of unemployment are perhaps more surprising, as the issue remains salient for millions of Americans.

Quote of the Day'Weak economic growth and lackluster job creation arethe overwhelming reasons why finances for SocialSecurity and Medicare worsened this year. We canexpect Republicans to jump on these numbers to justifytheir proposals to gut Medicare and cut Social Securitybenefits, but their reckless and unpopular proposalswill do nothing to create jobs or jump start theeconomy. We know the Medicare Trust Fund is still inbetter shape than it was before health reform waspassed. And absent any changes, the Social SecurityTrust Fund can still pay full benefits for the next 25years. We can all agree that we must do more to makeour entire health care system-not just Medicare andMedicaid-more cost-effective, but shifting more healthcare costs onto working families does not accomplishthat goal. Creating good jobs is the key to rebuildingthe economy and in turn the key to improving the longterm financial health of Social Security, Medicare andour entire safety net.'AFL-CIO President Richard TrumkaMay 13, 2011http://tinyurl.com/3ge4a6h