2007-10-31-皮尤-California_Wildfires_Draw_Large_Audience_12页_61kb

Summary of the California Wildfires and Government Response

Core Content

This document provides an analysis of public interest and media coverage related to the California wildfires in October 2007, comparing it to other major news events and evaluating the public's perception of the government's response.

Main Points

• Public Interest in California Wildfires:
  The California wildfires were the fourth most closely followed news story of the year, with 40% of Americans following the story very closely. This was slightly lower than the interest in the 1993 fires but higher than in 2003. Nearly half (46%) of the public listed the wildfires as the most closely followed news story of the week.

• Media Coverage:
  The wildfires accounted for 38% of the national newshole, making them the second most heavily covered news story of 2007, following the Virginia Tech shootings.
  Television news outlets devoted 53% of network TV and 51% of cable news to the fires, indicating intense coverage.

• Government Response Evaluation:
  The public gave high marks to the state and local governments in California for their response to the fires, with 76% rating them as excellent or good. This is in contrast to the dismal ratings after Hurricane Katrina, where only 41% gave positive ratings.
  The federal government received 58% excellent or good ratings for its response, compared to 38% after Katrina.
  There was a significant partisan gap in evaluations of the federal government's response, with 75% of Republicans giving excellent or good ratings, while only 52% of Democrats did so.

• Public Perception of Media Coverage:
  78% of the public rated the press coverage of the wildfires as excellent or good, with 17% rating it as fair or poor.
  62% believed the coverage was appropriate, while 25% thought it was overcovered and 9% thought it was undercovered.

Key Information

• The data is based on the Weekly News Interest Index by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted in conjunction with the Project for Excellence in Journalism's News Coverage Index.
• The survey was conducted from October 21–26, 2007, with public interest data collected from October 26–29, 2007.
• The sample size was 1,035 adults, and the margin of error for the total sample is ±3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Comparison with Other Events

• The California wildfires were less widely followed than Hurricane Katrina (73%), the San Francisco earthquake (73%), and Hurricane Andrew (66%), but more than the Midwest floods (65%) and other events.
• The Iraq war received 28% of public interest, unchanged from the previous week, but was not the most closely followed story.
• The World Series received 10% of public interest and 2% of media coverage.
• U.S.-Iranian tensions received 26% of public interest, with 5% rating it as the most closely followed story.

About the Pew Research Center

• The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is an independent opinion research group that studies public attitudes toward the press, politics, and public policy.
• It is sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts and is part of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan "fact tank" providing information on public issues.
• The Center's research is based on public opinion surveys and collaborative analysis involving its entire staff.

Additional Data

• The report includes detailed weekly public interest data from previous months, showing trends in news coverage and public attention.
• The News Interest Index measures both public interest and the amount of media coverage, providing a comprehensive view of the news landscape.