Two-thirds said that the U.N. should move. At the same time, the network conducted a random-sample poll of 1,000 people, and only 28 percent said the U.N. should move. Almost half of Americans paid little or no attention to these stories, and only one in four followed the average story very closely. Stories about wars and disasters were followed most closely, while those about celebrity scandals and politics finished last. When Pat Buchannan announced that he was running for President in 1991, for example, only 7 percent of Americans paid close attention to the story.
Conflicts make news.
When journalists are trying to liven up a boring political story, they need angry, well-informed citizens like a fish needs water. This is one reason why older men may be quoted more often than other groups. In the last decade, angry white men have dominated media programs designed to give ordinary people a chance to speak out in public. Two-thirds of regular listeners to political talk radio programs are men, according to a 1996 poll taken by Roper Starch Worldwide for the Media Studies Center in New York City. Republicans outnumber Democrats three to one in the talk-radio audience, and 89 percent of listeners are white, compared with the national average for voters of 83 percent.