87% Feel Media Covers Celebrities Too Much

The FINANCIAL — Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Americans feel the media pays too much attention to celebrities, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. But 84% of Adults also admit that Americans pay too much attention to celebrity news and not enough attention to news that has real impact on their lives.

Just one percent (1%) do not think media outlets cover celebs enough, while nine percent (9%) say the coverage is about right.

Similarly, only seven percent (7%) do not believe Americans pay too much attention to celebrity news.

Belief that both the media and the public pay too much attention to news abut celebrities is high across all demographic categories.

Around the time the Tiger Woods scandal was leaked, 80% thought the media was focusing too much attention to the golfer.

In October 2009, just after the “Balloon Boy” incident in Colorado, 80% of adults also said Americans pay too much attention to those types of stories.

The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 11-12, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. So how do Americans feel about some of the prominent celebrities in the news – for better or worse – in recent days?

Despite the belief that Americans follow celebrity news too closely, just 24% say they follow that kind of news at least somewhat closely, with only six percent (6%) who say they follow Very Closely.

Fifty percent (50%) say they don’t follow these types of stories very closely, and another 25% say they don’t follow celebrity news at all.

Women follow celebrity news more closely than men.

Among all adults who follow celebrity news very closely, 53% say the media covers celebrities too much, compared to 93% of those who don't follow that kind of news at all.

But even 77% of those who follow news about celebrities Very Closely think Americans pay too much attention to that kind of story.