{"id":13944,"date":"2014-10-21T16:02:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T21:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/ebola-ranks-among-highest-in-news-interest-since-2010\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:21:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:21:04","slug":"ebola-ranks-among-highest-in-news-interest-since-2010","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/10\/21\/ebola-ranks-among-highest-in-news-interest-since-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebola ranks among highest in news interest since 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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(Photo by Carl Court\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

As news about Ebola dominates the airwaves and permeates midterm campaigns, Americans are following the ongoing story at historically high rates. About half of U.S. adults (49%)<\/a> followed Ebola news very<\/em> closely last week, elevating the story to our list of most-followed events since 2010.<\/p>\n\n

\"Americans'<\/figure>\n\n

News interest in Ebola has grown substantially from when we first asked about the outbreak in early August. About one-in-four (26%) then said they were closely following news about the Ebola virus, which was limited to cases in Africa at the time.<\/p>\n\n

In the past two years, the only news stories to exceed this level of attention were the Boston Marathon bombing (63%), the 2012 election (60%), the Newtown shooting (57%) and Hurricane Sandy (53%).<\/p>\n\n

Looking at other dominant stories this year, 39% very closely followed news about missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and 37% closely followed the beginning of airstrikes against ISIS in late September.<\/p>\n\n

Interest in Ebola news spans demographic groups. Adults under 30 typically follow news stories much less closely than older adults, but 37% are closely tuned into Ebola reports (compared with 56% of adults 65 and older). About half of both college graduates and those with less education closely followed Ebola news last week, as did both men and women.<\/p>\n\n

Using another measure to gauge interest in Ebola, a separate survey found that the public\u2019s awareness of the story is also high: 79% say they have read or heard \u201ca lot\u201d<\/a> about the current outbreak, 19% say \u201ca little,\u201d and just 2% say \u201cnothing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\"Health_Stories\"<\/figure>\n\n

Stories about health emergencies often captivate the public, although Ebola interest still exceeds that of other recent global outbreaks, such as swine flu (43% at its peak in May 2009), SARS (39% in May 2003) and West Nile virus (34% in September 2002). In the context of post-Sept. 11 bioterrorism concerns, 47% of the public paid close attention to anthrax cases in early November 2001.<\/p>\n\n

By contrast, just 13% this May closely followed news about MERS, the lung disease that was spreading from the Middle East.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About half of U.S. adults (49%) followed Ebola news very closely last week, elevating the story to our list of most-followed events since 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"c4fd21c0d29ec42ce62a5bdc3a00f8a0","termId":754}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[336],"bylines":[754],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13944","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-news-coverage","bylines-seth-motel","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short 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