Michael Jackson media coverage "too much", Most Americans believe

Seven in 10 whites said there had been too much coverage compared with 36 percent of blacks.

Thirty-eight percent of those under the age of 40 said they followed the pop star's death very closely compared with 27 percent of those between 40 and 64 and 20 percent of those 65 and older.

Pew said a separate analysis of media coverage by the Pew Research Center?s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that for the week of June 22-28 the Jackson story and protests in Iran received similar levels of media coverage.

The protests in Iran made up 19 percent of the news hole for the week while the Jackson story took up 18 percent, it said.

However, from the time the Jackson story broke Thursday afternoon to the end of the day Friday, 60 percent of the news coverage studied was devoted to his death, Pew said.

Iran coverage dropped to seven percent of the news hole during the same period.