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Lippmann, Walter, 1889-1974

"Public Opinion"


Nearly seventy-one percent based their conscious preference on local
news (17.8%), or political (15.8%) or financial (11.3%), or foreign
(9.5%), or general (7.2%), or editorials (9%). The other thirty
percent decided on grounds not connected with public affairs. They
ranged from not quite seven who decided for ethical tone, down to one
twentieth of one percent who cared most about humor.
How do these preferences correspond with the space given by newspapers
to various subjects? Unfortunately there are no data collected on this
point for the newspapers read by the Chicago and New York groups at
the time the questionnaires were made. But there is an interesting
analysis made over twenty years ago by Wilcox. He studied one hundred
and ten newspapers in fourteen large cities, and classified the
subject matter of over nine thousand columns.
Averaged for the whole country the various newspaper matter was found
to fill:
{ (a) War News 17.9
{ { Foreign 1.2
{ (b) General " 21.8 { Politics 6.4
I. News 55.3 { { Crime 3.1
{ { Misc. 11.1
{
{ { Business 8.2
{ (c) Special " 15.


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