Search and Email Still the Most Popular Online Activities
As they have done for nearly a decade, email and search form the core of online communication and online information gathering, respectively, even as new platforms, broadband and mobile devices continue to reshape the way Americans use the internet and web.
Rising Restrictions on Religion
More than 2.2 billion people — nearly a third (32%) of the world’s total population of 6.9 billion — live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially between mid-2006 and mid-2009.
Views of Tea Party Supporters in Congress Grow More Negative
More Americans now think that members of Congress who support the Tea Party are having a negative effect than said that in January, at the start of the new Congress.
Public Sees Budget Negotiations as “Ridiculous”, “Disgusting”, “Stupid”
From liberal Democrats to Tea Party Republicans, there is broad public consensus that the budget negotiations of recent weeks can be summed up in words such as ridiculous, disgusting, stupid, and frustrating. Nationwide, 72% describe the recent negotiations in negative terms.
Wealth Gaps and Perception Gaps: A Paradox of the Great Recession
When the real estate market melted down, those hit hardest by the sharp drop in household wealth were blacks and Hispanics. But even while their wealth was being decimated, the political reaction among the nation’s minorities has been surprisingly muted.
For a Second a Week, it’s Debt Crisis and Tabloid Scandal
Two stories that have become fixtures in the headlines—the deadlocked debt debate and the intensifying News of the World phone hacking scandal—accounted for more than half of last week’s newshole, relegating other significant events to secondary status in the media.
Bloggers Assess Motives of the Norway Attacker
Most of the posts in the blogosphere following the dramatic July 22 attacks in Norway that resulted in at least 68 deaths focused on passing along breaking news and facts, but the next biggest topic of conversation centered around the motives and ideology of the killer, Anders Behring Breivik.
Obama Loses Ground in 2012 Reelection Bid
The sizeable lead Barack Obama held over a generic Republican opponent in May has vanished. In the race to be the Republican who takes on Obama, Mitt Romney still leads, but Rick Perry is getting strong interest from the most engaged Republicans, and Michele Bachmann is the candidate Republicans have heard most about recently.
Debt Stalemate Top Story, But No Surge in Public Interest
The debt limit was the top story last week for both the public and the news media, although public interest in the federal budget deficit and national debt is not much higher than it was the previous week despite the approaching Aug. 2 deadline for raising the ceiling.
Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics
The lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government began publishing such data a quarter century ago and roughly twice the size of the ratios that had prevailed between these three groups for the two decades prior to the Great Recession that ended in 2009.
