Study: Tech Media Obsessed with Covering Apple

This probably won’t surprise anyone who follows tech news much (heck, we’re somewhat guilty of it too), but a year-long study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has found that Apple dominates tech coverage. Of the 437 articles analyzed by the study, Apple was the primary focus of 15.1 percent. The next three biggest tech media fixations were Google, Twitter, and Facebook, netting 11.4 percent, 7.2 percent, and 4.8 percent of stories, respectively. Meanwhile, poor Microsoft got only 3 percent of stories.

The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter writes:

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.”

Another interesting finding: Nearly one in ten tech stories surveyed were about the dangers of texting while driving, “six times the coverage devoted to the debate over net neutrality.”

(NYT via Romenesko | Study link)