The latest update from Media Cloud shows a familiar pattern yet again this week
Mainstream coverage of schools and COVID-19 continued its downward trend last week, a pattern that has occurred in 5 of the last 6 weeks.
There were 1,367 stories about schools and the coronavirus published among the top 100 mainstream media sources during the week, of April 26 through May 2 — a decline from 1,443 stories the prior week, according to Media Cloud.
This is the lowest number of stories since March 1 through 6, when 1,117 stories appeared.
Coverage of schools and COVID-19 peaked with 3, 838 stories the week of March 15 through 21.
Above: The green line shows the week-by-week change number of school-related COVID-19 stories among the top mainstream news outlets.
Local and national coverage shows a similar pattern
The Grade also looked at 33 local news media sources and 13 national news media sources that are known to cover education and compared the number of stories in those outlets to the larger mainstream media category used by Media Cloud.
That comparison showed similar trend lines among all three categories, with a peak in the number of stories in mid-March, followed by steep declines
Above: Local and national production of school-related COVID stories (green and red) have mirrored the rise and fall of the top national media outlets.
Education’s share of the COVID-19 story continues to fall.
As the number of stories about schools and COVID-19 have declined, so has the share of schools stories that mentions COVID-19.
The week of March 15, 91 percent of mainstream media stories that mentioned schools also mention COVID-19.
That percentage dropped into the 80s in April and last week it hit 78%.
Thus, in mid-March, roughly 9 out of 10 stories about schools mentioned COVID-19. By the beginning of May, that dropped to 8 out of 10.
Above: COVID-related coverage continues to fall as a percentage of education coverage among top mainstream news sites.
Previous update: Local and regional news more likely to feature school-related COVID-19 coverage
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The Grade
Launched in 2015, The Grade is a journalist-run effort to encourage high-quality coverage of K-12 education issues.
