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    McCain’s Negatives Mostly Political, Obama’s More Personal

    Overview As the end of the primary season draws near, Barack Obama is the clear favorite of Democratic voters for their party’s presidential nomination. He currently holds a wide 54% to 41% lead over Hillary Clinton. But when the Illinois Democrat is tested against John McCain in a general election matchup, he now runs about […]

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    Character and the Primaries of 2008

    What were the dominant personal narratives conveyed in media coverage of the presidential candidates? Which contenders fared best in the press and how critical was that coverage in influencing public opinion? How did those candidate story lines change over time? A new PEJ study of the 2008 primary season examines these questions.

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    The Middle Class Blues

    When it comes to anxiety about family finances, an old truism applies: Where you stand depends on where you sit. Or, more precisely, on where your house or apartment sits.

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    Greater Coverage of McCain, But Public Still Focused on Obama

    Summary of Findings Despite a significant increase in news coverage of John McCain last week, Barack Obama remained by far the most visible candidate in the eyes of the public. Fully half of the public said Obama was the candidate they had heard the most about in the news recently, while only 8% said they […]

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    While Democrats Battle on, McCain Makes News

    The new wrinkle in last week’s campaign coverage was not the Democrats’ results in Oregon and Kentucky or the flap over Hillary Clinton’s Robert Kennedy comment. It was the story of GOP hopeful John McCain finally morphing from bystander on the sidelines to newsmaker in the headlines.

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    Polling in the age of cell phones

    Introduction In the past few years, the growing number of Americans living in households without landline telephones has challenged survey researchers to develop a variety of approaches to deal with this non-coverage issue. One approach is to add interviews over the cell phone to traditional random digit dial surveys of landline telephones.1 Adding cell phone […]

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    Old media and new media blur just a little more

    In what could be considered a further blurring of traditional media and new forms of digital media, this weekend’s cover story in the New York Times Magazine features the intimate autobiographical account of Emily Gould, blogger and former Gawker …

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    Foreign Disasters Attract Interest Despite Modest Coverage

    Summary of Findings The American public expressed strong news interest in the earthquake in China last week even as the news media remained heavily focused on the presidential campaign. In spite of modest coverage of both the earthquake in China and the cyclone that hit Burma, the public had a fairly good sense of the […]