Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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2007

  • report

    Primary Scramble Prompts Calls to Slow Down

    The scramble among states to move up their presidential primaries next year has renewed calls from a number of the nation’s chief election officers to end the helter-skelter and move to a slower nominating process, such as by staging four regional primaries.

  • short reads

    Hostility Among Asian Neighbors

    As the Chinese New Year approaches, China and its longtime rival Japan are in no mood to celebrate together. A Pew Global Attitudes survey found that 71% of Japanese express an unfavorable view of China and an equal number of Chinese dislike Japan.

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    Anna and the Astronaut Trigger a Week of Tabloid News

    Presidential politics and Iraq managed to attract their fair share of coverage last week. But an allegedly homicidal astronaut and a troubled pinup girl really commandeered the media’s attention. The coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith was cast as sociology but it had the intensity of voyeurism.

  • short reads

    States Tax Food Sales

    That’s the number of states that tax groceries; with stable budget conditions prevailing across most of the country, several states are considering scrapping their food tax.

  • report

    The “News and Schmooze” Explosion

    A new study finds a proliferation of “citizen media” web sites that fit somewhere on the media spectrum between the street-corner soapbox and the local daily newspaper. While concluding that these grassroots outlets are successful at creating community conversations, the report on this emerging landscape also reveals that many are tenuous, shoestring operations.

  • report

    The Talk is All About War, Politics, and Pet Topics

    The nation’s radio and cable talk shows can’t resist talking about the blockbuster hot button issues like Iraq and the presidential campaign. But on subjects ranging from global warming and tensions with Iran to the Scooter Libby trial and the death of Molly Ivins, the talk conversation is very much shaped by the hosts’ own agendas.

  • report

    Can You Trust What Polls Say about Obama’s Electoral Prospects?

    The strong showing of Democrat Barack Obama in early trial heat polls for the 2008 presidential election raises anew the question of whether the American public is ready to support an African American candidate for president. Recent polling points to two significant shifts on this question.

  • report

    What Americans Pay For – and How

    Nearly three-in-ten adults say the most common way they take care of their regular monthly bills is by an online or electronic payment.

  • report

    Can You Trust What Polls Say about Obama’s Electoral Prospects?

    The strong showing of Democrat Barack Obama in early trial heat polls for the 2008 presidential election raises anew the question of whether the American public is ready to support an African American candidate for president. Recent polling points to two significant shifts on this question. Read the full analysis at PewResearch.org