The Coast Star newspaper has a circulation of 11,530 and serves a dozen towns along the Jersey Shore. It’s been operating since 1877.

The most recent edition had two top stories on the front page.

One was typical fare, about a local board of education contract. The other was about the war in the Ukraine.

The headline Sea Girt Stands with Ukrainians detailed efforts in the hamlet to collect supplies for “Ukrainian soldiers and victims of the Russian invasion.”

The article and its placement on the front page are extraordinary illustrations of where U.S. public sentiment seems to stand.

I cannot recall seeing a similar story in the paper supporting combatants in a conflict that didn’t directly involve the U.S.

Academics use archives of media coverage to detect and measure shifts in public opinion over historical time periods.

Increasingly, expect those news analytics to become more widely available in real time and provide a companion to opinion polls.