Holiday Haranguings
The continuing health care debate, and an insurgent campaign for the top of the British pop charts were at the center of social media commentary.
Stories of 2009: Public vs. Press
The media’s top stories generally reflected the public’s top interests, but the press gave more coverage to politics (Kennedy’s death, Palin’s book, Specter’s switch) than the public was willing to follow.
Latinos Online: Narrowing the Gap
From 2006 to 2008, internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%, compared with a 4-percentage-point rise among whites and a 2-percentage-point rise among blacks. The growth among Latinos was driven mainly by increased usage by the foreign born and those with lower incomes — groups that have low rates of online activity.
How Religious is Your State?
An interactive graphic lets you check out how your state — and all the other states — rank on four measures of religiosity.
More Now Think Health Care Reform Will Pass
Americans continued to follow the health care debate more closely than any other news story last week, and the public gave the odds of a reform bill ultimately being passed the most positive assessment in two months of tracking.
Public Looks Back at Worst Decade in 50 Years
As the current decade draws to a close, relatively few Americans have positive things to say about it. But major technological and communications advances are viewed in an overwhelmingly positive light.
Global Restrictions on Religion
Since some of the most restrictive countries are very populous, nearly 70% of the world’s 6.8 billion people live in countries with severe restrictions on religion.
Obama’s 2010 Challenge: Wake Up Liberals, Calm Down Independents
His approval has slipped, but is not much different from where Reagan stood at this point in his term. But the public’s conservative shift could be trouble for the president.
Little Support for Terrorism Among Muslim Americans
The Pew Research Center’s comprehensive portrait of the Muslim American population suggests that, despite recent events, America is less likely to be a fertile breeding ground for terrorism than are Muslim minority communities in other countries.
No Denying the Heat of Global Warming Debate in the Blogosphere
Climate change received more attention online than any other subject in a given week this year. Much of the added fuel came from global warming believers who joined a debate that had been dominated by skeptics.
