Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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Gun Ownership and Regulation

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    More See “Too Much” Religious Talk by Politicians

    A new survey finds signs of public uneasiness with the mixing of religion and politics. The number of people who say there has been too much religious talk by political leaders stands at an all-time high in Pew Research Center surveys, and most Americans continue to say that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of politics.

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    Religion and the 2012 Illinois Republican Primary

    Exit polling from the Illinois Republican primary shows that Romney continues to draw less support from white born-again/evangelical voters than from non-evangelicals, while Santorum has yet to secure an outright victory among Catholic voters in any state for which data are available.

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    The State of the News Media 2012: An Annual Report on American Journalism

    New research released in this report finds that mobile devices are adding to people’s news consumption, strengthening the lure of traditional news brands and providing a boost to long-form journalism. Eight in ten who get news on smartphones or tablets, for instance, get news on conventional computers as well. People are taking advantage, in other words, of having easier access to news throughout the day – in their pocket, on their desks and in their laps.

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    What Facebook and Twitter Mean for News

    Perhaps no topic in technology attracted more attention in 2011 than the rise of social media and its potential impact on news. “If searching for news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing news may be among the most important of the next,” we wrote in a May 2011 report analyzing online news behavior called Navigating News Online.

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    How Community News is Faring

    In 2011, the landscape of community news websites reached a new level of maturity. Some seed grants ran out, there were more startups, some highly publicized closures and a clearer sense of what is needed to succeed.

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    Year in the News 2011

    The faltering U.S. economy was the No. 1 story in the American news media in 2011, with coverage increasing substantially from a year earlier when economic unease helped alter the political landscape in the midterm elections, according to The Year in the News 2011, a new report conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

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    Newspapers: Building Digital Revenues Proves Painfully Slow

    The newspaper industry enters 2012 neither dying nor assured of a stable future. The industry has rallied around a story about itself – that year-by year it is developing new digital products and new revenue streams to transition from dependence on print advertising. In 2011, that traditional advertising pool declined for a sixth consecutive year. The website of the Gannett Company, emphasizing those digital initiatives, now intentionally has no mention of newspapers on its home page.

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    Digital: News Gains Audience but Loses Ground in Chase for Revenue

    Two numbers symbolize the intensifying challenge and opportunity the digital world poses for the news industry: In 2011, social media giant Facebook grew to 133 million active users from 117 million in the U.S.1 And in the final months of the year, tablet ownership in the U.S. nearly doubled, to 18% of Americans.