Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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  • report

    Can the Exit Polls be Fixed?

    Problems with exit polls affected the last three election cycles and wreaked havoc with media coverage of the 2000 and 2004 presidential balloting. With the crucial 2006 midterm election upon us, exit pollsters hope they’ve resolved those troubling issues. What is the status of the poll?

  • presentation

    User-Generated Content

    More than a third or 35% of online adults create content online, and 57% of teenagers 12-17 make their own content to post to the Web. Younger users and home broadband users are the most avid content creators, and most post their creations online …

  • presentation

    The impact of the internet on politics

    Is the internet the lever for direct democracy? Or is it a wedge for political polarization? An assessment of the first 10 years of online politics.

  • short reads

    Party Control Matters

    That’s the percentage of registered voters who say the issue of which party controls Congress will be a factor in their vote when they go to the polls Tuesday. That’s much higher than in recent midterm elections. More Democrats than Republicans say party control matters (73% vs. 65%). But party control is a bigger factor for Republicans than it was just a few weeks ago (65% vs. 58% in early October).

  • report

    Republicans Cut Democratic Lead in Campaign’s Final Days

    Summary of Findings A nationwide Pew Research Center survey finds voting intentions shifting in the direction of Republican congressional candidates in the final days of the 2006 midterm campaign. The new survey finds a growing percentage of likely voters saying they will vote for GOP candidates. However, the Democrats still hold a 48% to 40% […]

  • report

    A Closer Look at Plunging Circulation

    The new numbers released this week were bad enough for a newspaper industry that lost nearly 3% of its circulation in the last year. But when you factor in subscriber discounts, the economic picture gets worse. And the industry’s efforts to compensate for decreasing circulation with increasing online readership may not stand up to scrutiny.

  • transcript

    Judicial Showdown: The Supreme Court Returns to the Abortion Debate

    Washington, D.C. On Nov. 8, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two cases that challenge the constitutionality of the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. The Act aims to prohibit a doctor from performing what the legislation calls a “partial birth” abortion unless a pregnant woman’s life is in danger. Is the law […]

  • report

    Nielsen Starts Watching the Ad Watchers

    Nielsen Media Research, the gold standard in the TV ratings industry, has announced that it will release numbers in December that show how many people actually sit through commercials on TV. That new yardstick will affect how much advertisers will pay to air those ads and will very possibly alter the economics of the TV marketplace. And not everyone in the TV business is happy about this.