GDELT API

Mainstream Media (GDELT)

This API reports coverage of topics across major broadcast news channels, including but not limited to PBS, CNN, FOX, and BBC. Topics are defined by the user’s text search of federally required closed captioning, and may be further queried by timeframe, date format, and data format. Accessing GDELT allowed us to view the difference in news coverage surrounding abortion between print and tv media, as well as compared with social media. The following chart shows the percentage of the total news coverage that is about abortion by network by month going all the way back to 2009. While abortion has asserted itself into the national conversation again, this chart shows that the topic of abortion has long gone through cycles of national attention. Notably, Fox News both historically and presently speaks more frequently on the topic than the other news networks.

Taking a closer look at the past year, the following chart shows the percentage of total daily news coverage that is about abortion by network. All news networks say a spike in coverage about abortion beginning in September 2021. This coincides with the major events surrounding the topic of abortion covered in the introduction. On September 1st, Texas’s abortion law which essentially bans all abortions after six weeks of prenancy. The Supreme Court’s recent discussion over the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is further reflected in the network coverage.

The following chart shows the percentage of the total daily news coverage of all the networks together. Additionally, the mean percentage of total daily news coverage by network is shown. Taken together, these further show Fox News’s above average coverage surrounding abortion. According to Media Bias Fact Check, Fox news scoes a bias rating of “right.” The right’s strong stance against abortion could be why Fox News has above average coverage of the topic. The bias on the topic of abortion by Fox News is clear in a recent headline published by the network on December 16th, 2021 which reads, “Atheist WaPo columnist bemoans idea babies have souls, says she’d ‘feel nothing’ if mother aborted her.”

• See the Final Project Code for the code that produced these plots.