C·1
Occupation & profession
police · soldiers · doctors · teachers · farmers · workers
Data set 2 · in design
Social groups in the news
Who shows up when America's paper of record covers policy — interest groups, workers, veterans, immigrants, and the rest of the social fabric. A first cut of the dictionary this data set will formalize, applied to a decade of New York Times front pages.
01
Top categories
The draft top level of the social-group dictionary — every tracked group term rolls up into one of twelve categories, so attention can be read at both levels. The two clouds below are the evidence it was drawn from: the examples under each category are terms actually measured in the corpus, not invented for the scheme.
C·2
Class & income
the poor · the wealthy · the homeless
C·3
Religion
Catholics · Muslims · Jews · evangelicals
C·4
Race & ethnicity
Black Americans · Hispanics
C·5
Gender & sexuality
women · gay Americans
C·6
Age & life stage
children · students · the elderly
C·7
Immigration & origin
immigrants · refugees
C·8
Family & household
families · parents
C·9
Health & disability
patients · the disabled
C·10
Market roles
consumers · investors · small business
C·11
Civic & service
voters · veterans
C·12
Organized interests
unions · interest groups · executives
Draft proposal — the category scheme and dictionary are being designed with the collaboration's partners; boundaries and names will move.
02
One decade, one front page
Font size reflects how many of the 31,034 front-page stories (1996–2006) mention each group. Hover any group for its count.
policethe disabledsoldiersevangelicalschildrensmall businessimmigrantsHispanicswomenfarmersfamiliesconsumersworkersveteransunionsthe homelessthe poorBlack AmericansstudentsinvestorsvotersteachersdoctorsJewsexecutivesMuslimsgay AmericansparentspatientsCatholicsinterest groupsthe wealthyrefugeesthe elderly
31,034front-page stories
1996–2006every NYT front page
41group categories tracked
Method: article-level counts — a story counts once per group when its title or summary matches the group's term family (plurals and common synonyms included). Source: the US Policy Agendas Project's New York Times Front Page dataset (v19.3) ↗. The dictionary is a working draft — the finished data set will rest on a formal category scheme.
03
The same dictionary, this month
Applied to the live US press — every article title across the monitored American outlets, last 30 days. Sizes are relative within each cloud.
childrenBlack AmericanspoliceNative Americanswomenmiddle classfamiliesevangelicalsvotersnursesexecutivesinterest groupsimmigrantsrefugeesstudentsCatholicsworkersHispanicsparentsthe poorhomeownerstenantssoldiersfarmersveteransthe homelessinvestorsthe disabledunionsgay Americansthe wealthytaxpayersdoctorsMuslimsthe elderlypatientsconsumersJewsteacherssmall business
96,556US press articles scanned
30 dayswindow (as of Aug 20, 2026)
40group categories tracked
Method: title-level matches over the full US news corpus (a poll of major US outlets); the historical cloud above matches titles and summaries. A dated capture — the full dictionary scan is too heavy to run per-visit; it refreshes with the data set build.