Greater Coverage of McCain, But Public Still Focused on Obama
Fully half of the public said Obama was the candidate they had heard the most about in the news, while only 8% said the same of McCain despite a significant increase in news coverage of his candidacy.
Research Roundup: Latest Findings on Cell Phones and Polling
The Pew Research Center has been studying the challenge to survey research posed by the growing number of wireless-only households. Here’s a summary of its latest findings.
Cable’s Constant Campaign Coverage Out of Sync With Public News Interest
While much of the public focused on international events, cable news focused on the campaign almost to the exclusion of other top news stories. Also, though well covered, awareness of John Edwards’ endorsement of Obama was relatively low.
Edwards Rewrites the Election Story Line
In embracing Obama less than 24 hours after Clinton’s big win in West Virginia, Edwards diverted media attention away from discussion of renewed Clinton momentum and helped refocused the narrative on Obama’s apparent inevitability.
Tracking China’s Earthquake on TV and the Internet – Part II
In a second dispatch, our Beijing correspondent reports that Chinese TV is back to being the voice of the government. Meanwhile, the internet has become a more wild-west version of itself, with a virtual explosion of content that runs the gamut from informative to creative, irresponsible, angry, maudlin…
The Online Mall: How People Do – and Don’t – Use the Internet in Making Purchasing Decisions
A new Pew Internet Project study finds that going online helps people sort through product choices, but it is not the place where people usually close the deal for housing, cell phones or even music.
Tracking China’s Earthquake on TV and the Internet
While the internet proved to be a faster and more varied source of news about the disaster, Chinese television reports have shown an unprecedented absence of censorship: “The faces in these productions tell everything. The soldiers are young; the grief is raw; the eyes are desperate.”
The Plight of Iraq’s Religious Minorities
Since 2003, sectarian violence, ambiguous legal protections for religious freedom, and other factors have contributed to a deteriorating situation for Christians and other small religious sects.
Handguns: Public Rejects a Ban — but Supports Controls
Nearly three-quarters of Republicans (73%) oppose a ban on handgun sales, a view shared by 59% of independents and just half of Democrats.
The Federal Government’s Favorables Fall Even Farther
Americans continue to hold their local and state governments in fairly high esteem, but positive views of the federal government are at their lowest point in at least a decade.
