Newspaper coverage of the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal grew more intense this spring than at any time since 2002, and European newspapers devoted even more ink to the story than American papers did, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. The heavy coverage in Europe was a reversal of the pattern […]
The U.S. economy topped the news agenda in a week that included a major summit in Washington D.C. an eruption that wreaked havoc with global travel and a series of Tea Party protests. Meanwhile, coverage of the once raging health care issue has tapered off dramatically since the legislation was signed into law.
Summary of Findings The public and the media went their own ways on the news last week. The media kept up heavy coverage of the aftermath of the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound jet on Christmas Day, while the public focused most closely on the health care debate in Washington. About a quarter (26%) […]
Summary of Findings Americans have been highly focused on the massive earthquake that struck Haiti Jan. 12. Not only is the disaster clearly the public’s top news story, fully 70% say it is the story they are talking about with friends. Overall interest in news about the Haiti earthquake is on par with interest in […]
Last week, the health care debate remained the lead story as talk hosts argued about whether the confrontations between protestors and politicians were genuine or choreographed. And thanks to a dramatic prisoner release in North Korea, a former president made almost as much news as the current one.
Summary of Findings Americans who have learned at least a little about Judge Sonia Sotomayor are more likely to offer traits or aspects they like about President Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee than things they do not like about the federal appellate court judge from New York. Asked if there was anything they have learned […]
Even by midweek, the media had begun to shift focus from protests in Iran to a political sex scandal in South Carolina. But all that was before the death of the best-selling recording artist whose troubled life and pioneering music made him an icon. By the time the week ended, focus on Michael Jackson’s passing overwhelmed all other media stories.
In the last several weeks, terrorism has topped the news agenda more often than the economic crisis. As last week’s dueling Cheney-Obama speeches showed, that’s what happens when a hot-button topic becomes the Beltway’s primary political fault line.
Summary of Findings With the presidential election behind them, Americans have turned their attention back to the nation’s economy. The economy was by far the public’s top news story last week. Fully 56% of the public followed news about the economy very closely last week, and as many as 43% listed this as the single […]
In the final week of the campaign, both presidential candidates continued to pound away at each other’s economic policies. But as they examined the details of the last polls, the battlegrounds, and the strategy, the media had all but anointed a winner.