We now have proof, if any was needed, that Apple accounts for a disproportionate amount of media space, according to research by Pew. The centre found that 15.1% of tech articles are about Apple compared with 11.4% for Google, 7.1% for Twitter, 4.8% for Facebook and 3% for Microsoft.
Apple probably even dominates coverage about it dominating tech coverage. How meta.
Photo by mac morrison on Flickr. Some rights reserved
NYT says Pew's deputy director Amy Mitchell said Apple's "very public way of releasing products" was a big part of the cycle, but was also surprised the survey found such a lead over Google.
Pew's research reviewed tech coverage in 437 stories by 52 US media outlets across TV, radio, print and web for the 12 months up to June 2010. iPhone 4 was the most covered story over that year accounting for 6.4% of coverage, while iPad accounted for 4.6% and Windows new operating system just 0.5%.
Publishers explain away the excess of Apple coverage by saying that those stories are popular with readers. But are readers just focusing on those stories because there are so many of them? Either way, it's extremely good news for Apple, which effectively outsources its marketing by offering minimal PR outreach beyond product launches; 42% of stories about Apple describe the company as innovative and superior compared to 17% saying products don't live up to the hype.
Elsewhere in the research the focus of stories was examined. Upbeat stories about new gadgets and tools and shared space with privacy violations and online threats to child safety, while by far the biggest story was about the dangers of texting while driving - accounting for more than five times more coverage than national US broadband plans and six times more than net neutrality. Tech coverage only accounted for 1.6% of overall news output, ranking its 20th of 26th topics behind crime but ahead of religion.
