Study Finds That Apple Dominates Tech News

 

Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg News 

A customer, Evan Wiendczak, spoke after buying the first iPhone 4 on Fifth Avenue in June.

A new study confirms what some in the technology industry have long sensed: that Apple commands an inordinate amount of the media’s attention.
A yearlong look at technology news coverage by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that 15.1 percent of tech articles were primarily about Apple; 11.4 percent were about Google; and a meager 3 percent were about Microsoft.
It’s not as if Microsoft lacks for public relations people. But Apple is especially effective at seizing journalists’ attention, said Amy S. Mitchell, the deputy director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, citing the anticipation for new devices and Apple’s “very public way of releasing products.”
Apple software powers only a tiny slice of the world’s computers, an area dominated by Microsoft. But its popular and innovative iPods and iPhones helped Apple exceed Microsoft’s market capitalization earlier this year.
Ms. Mitchell said she was surprised by the extent of Apple’s domination of the media’s diet, “even over Google.”
The Pew study, to be released on Monday, assessed technology coverage by 52 newspapers, broadcast and Web sites from June 2009 through June 2010. The release of a new version of the iPhone was the No. 2 most-talked-about tech story during that time, representing 6.4 percent of all coverage, and the release of the iPad was No. 4, representing 4.6 percent.
Microsoft released a new version of its Windows operating system during that time, too, but it garnered one half of 1 percent of all coverage.
The single biggest story line was texting while driving, accounting for 8.5 percent of all tech articles during that time. The study noted that The New York Times earned a Pulitzer Prize for a series called “Driven to Distraction,” about the dangers of using electronic devices while driving.
A report summarizing the study concluded that the media has “double vision about the digital age,” because the most prevalent message in news coverage is that “technology is making life easier and more productive,” but the second most common message is that there are risks to users’ privacy and safety.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/study-finds-that-apple-dominates-tech-news/