Deborah Potter, a former network-television correspondent who covered campaigns and elections from 1976 to 1992, serves as project director. At issue is the media's relevance in the nation's political debate. A recent survey by the Washington, D.C., Pew Center for the People and the Press found the percentage of people who say they regularly watch network evening-news programs fell to 42 percent this year from 60 percent three years ago. An April study showed newspaper readership as more stable. Fifty percent of those asked if they had read a newspaper yesterday answered yes, compared with 52 percent in June 1995.
Potter gives low marks to most national coverage of presidential primaries.
In some ways, newspapers' increased attention to citizen issues merely takes a page from Bill Clinton's successful 1992 campaign strategy. Expect more of the same this year, she says. That's the classic way of getting around the yammering national press corps. Despite the reading and viewing statistics, readers remain interested in political news, say researchers at The Freedom Forum Media Studies Center in New York City. Yet respondents say the press doesn't focus enough on candidates' positions on issues or explain how the election's outcome will affect their lives.