Is the momentum for gay marriage real, or just media hype?

A new Pew study shows media coverage this year tilted toward positive coverage of same-sex marriage by a 5-to-1 margin

Same-sex marriage proponents hold a rally in San Francisco in March.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Some time in the next week, either on Thursday or Monday, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down two big rulings on same-sex marriage. Around the time the high-court justices were hearing the high-profile cases in March, the media was dedicating a lot of ink and pixels to the subject — and the coverage wasn't evenly divided between supporters and opponents of gay marriage, according to a new study from Pew.

In fact, it wasn't even close, say Paul Hitlin, Amy Mitchell, and Mark Jurkowitz at Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism. In nearly 500 articles and TV segments from March 18 to May 12, "stories with more statements supporting same-sex marriage outweighed those with more statements opposing it by a margin of roughly 5-to-1."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.