Focus Shifts From State of the Union to Egypt Uprisings

A week that began with a focus on President Obama's State of the Union address ended with all eyes on the Middle East and the Egyptian uprising against President Hosni Mubarak.

According to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism news coverage index from Jan. 24-30, 20 percent of the week's coverage centered around unrest in the Middle East, while 17 percent focused on the State of the Union.

Stories falling behind in coverage were those on the economy (13 percent), the Eastern winter storm (4 percent) and the Arizona shootings (4 percent).

According to the report, at the beginning of last week President Obama's speech accounted for 28 percent of media coverage.

Early in the week, unrest in countries such as Tunisia, Lebanon, Yemen and Egypt accounted for 8 percent of overall coverage. From Jan. 27-30 it jumped to 36 percent, according to the center's findings.