America's Promise Alliance

Awareness

In the 16 months (April 1, 2008 – July 31, 2009) since the Dropout Prevention Campaign’s launch, there has been considerable, increasing nationwide attention on the dropout crisis facing America’s schools.

• National and local media have generated more than 2,600 stories on the topic of high school dropouts since America’s Promise Alliance launched its national Dropout Prevention Campaign on April 1, 2008.
• Together, these stories have generated more than 392 million media impressions on America’s dropout crisis. Much of the coverage is attributable to the Campaign, with 356 million impressions — or nine out of 10 (91 percent) stories generated — mentioning America’s Promise Alliance and/or the Dropout Prevention Campaign specifically.
• To date, coverage of the Campaign has appeared in all 50 states, including all of the country’s 25 largest media markets.
• The Campaign has garnered considerable national television airtime, including stories appearing on ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, FOX News Report, CNN’s American Morning, Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNN’s State of the Union with John King, CNN’s Black in America with Soledad O’Brien and other nationally televised programs.
• Radio airwaves have buzzed with Campaign messages, including airings on CNN Radio, CBS Radio and Associated Press Broadcast.

The Alliance’s introduction of the Dropout Prevention Campaign has significantly increased media attention surrounding this issue.

To provide some comparison, we analyzed the amount and caliber of media coverage about the issue that was generated in the 16 months prior (December 1, 2006 – March 31, 2008) to the Campaign’s introduction.

Just 454 media stories on the issue appeared during this period — just 17 percent, or less than one-fifth of the coverage that appeared in the 16 months following the Campaign’s launch.

In the 16 months prior to the Campaign’s launch, coverage on the issue had appeared in just 39 of America’s 50 states.

Stories in influential print outlets were considerably less frequent in the 16 months prior to the Campaign.

• Just seven articles appeared in three of the nation’s largest newspapers, including USA Today, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times — less than half of the number of stories that the Campaign generated in such high-profile outlets.
• Similarly just one wire story appeared in Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News compared to the five Associated Press stories alone that were generated since the Campaign’s launch.

In total, three-fourths (74 percent) of the media coverage about America’s high school dropout crisis spanned from America’s Promise Alliance and/or the Dropout Prevention Campaign from December 1, 2006 – July 31, 2009.