(Pew Research Center for the People & the Press)

Except the media.

New research from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows, "Only about one-in-ten (11%) cite news about protests in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries as the story they followed most closely last week. By contrast, more than three times that number (38%) followed news about the aftermath of the Jan. 8 Arizona shooting rampage most closely last week, according to the latest News Interest Index survey conducted Jan. 27-30 among 1,007 adults."

According to a separate report from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), turmoil in the Middle East accounted for 20 percent of last week's media coverage with Obama's State of the Union speech coming in at 17 percent. In comparison, 4 percent of last week's coverage was focused on the Tucson shootings and its ramifications.

The PEJ report shows that the beginning half of the week was focused on previewing and reviewing Obama's second State of the Union address, but that the Middle East's problems soon dominated the news narrative.

As the chaos and civil disorder amped up over the weekend, the media followed suit in its coverage.

"From Jan. 27-30, as the survey was being conducted, unrest in the Middle East accounted for 36% of all news coverage, with coverage of Egypt alone accounting for 30% of the newshole," the People & Press report said.

A large focus of last week's Middle East coverage centered on America's relationship with 30-year Egyptian President Hosni Mubarack who has served as a key ally for the U.S.'s Middle East relations.

And much time was spent analyzing what this all means for Obama.

POLITICO's Mike Allen writes, "The eruption in Egypt has dampened spirits in the Obama White House, where officials were having their best run in more than a year. “We’re struggling to figure all this out,” said a top official who spent much of the weekend on the crisis. Obama’s closest aides have been enjoying three Rs: political resurgence, economic recovery, and a White House reorganization that most West Wingers applaud. But now these officials fret that new instability in the Middle East will 1) distract from President Obama’s jobs-and-innovation message, 2) dim hopes for a breakthrough in the peace process, and 3) stall the economy if the revolutionary tsunami spreads to other Arabian states, driving up the price of oil."

Another focus of the Egypt coverage has been what role social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have played in the uprisings, and many say the relationship between the two has been completely overplayed. 

Louis Klarevas, a professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, notes, "Social media obviously have some important supporting roles to play in popular uprisings. But despite some recent news media proclamations to the contrary, Twitter will not likely be the primary force behind political upheaval...No revolutionary manifesto has ever been written in 140 characters or less. And events in Tunisia and Egypt offer no evidence that this will change."

The data reveals that cable news outlets devoted the most time to the Middle East--36 percent of cable airtime was focused on the unrest, while network news devoted 20 percent of its airtime to it. Middle East coverage in newspapers and online news came in at 15 percent each and radio at 11 percent.

But the public's lack of interest in the Egyptian ongoings is not atypical--it's actually "in line with interest in other overseas protests in recent years. In fact, more than twice as many said they followed the Egyptian protests very closely than the protests in Tunisia a week earlier (17% vs. 7%)."

One exception to this statistic is the Iranian protests in 2009, which garnered much greater public attention.

"Nearly three-in-ten (28%) followed the protests very closely the week of June 19-22, 2009, and 31% followed the crackdown on election protestors very closely the following week (June 26-29)," the report said.