report | Dec 30, 2009
During a Christmas week when the Senate passed its version of health care reform, social media devoted more attention to the subject than it had at any time this year. Bloggers also focused on an international grassroots campaign. On Twitter, a Blackberry outage led the way, while on YouTube, questions about the attack on the Italian Prime Minister drew significant attention.
report | Dec 29, 2009
Summary of Findings The troubled economy and efforts to revamp the nation’s health care system dominated the public’s news interest in 2009. From the year’s start, Americans kept a close watch on the unfolding economic crisis, as well as Barack Obama’s efforts to grapple with the crisis while trying to make good on campaign promises. […]
short reads | Dec 29, 2009
As Americans begin a new year, nearly six-in-ten say this decade will be better than the last 10 years.
short reads | Dec 29, 2009
By roughly two-to-one, more say they have a generally negative rather than a generally positive impression of the 2000s.
short reads | Dec 29, 2009
17% of teens who pay for all of the costs associated with their cell phones send sexually suggestive images via text.
short reads | Dec 29, 2009
15% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have received sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of someone they know via text messaging.
short reads | Dec 29, 2009
About one-third of the countries in the world -- 64 nations -- have high or very high restrictions on religion.
short reads | Dec 29, 2009
About half of the U.S. public says they have had a religious or mystical experience.
short reads | Dec 29, 2009
Nearly one-in-five Americans say they have seen or been in the presence of ghosts.
short reads | Dec 29, 2009
Fully 16% of Americans believe in the "evil eye" or that certain people can cast curses or spells that cause bad things to happen to someone.