Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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Politics

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    Two Decades of American News Preferences

    Despite dramatic structural changes in the news media since the 1980s, the interests of news audiences have changed very little over the past several decades. Disaster News and Money News have been at the top of the charts throughout, while Tabloid News and Foreign News have been at the bottom. In this first of two reports, Pew Research Center consultant Michael Robinson analyzes data from 165 surveys on audience preferences taken by the PRC (and predecessor organizations) since 1986.

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    Presidential Campaign Isn’t Making a Good First Impression

    The final votes won’t be counted for another 15 months, but the 2008 presidential campaign already seems to be wearing out its welcome with many Americans. When asked to sum up their impression of the early-blooming campaign in a word, a majority of the public has a negative assessment, while just one-in-five has a kind […]

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    Two Decades of American News Preferences

    Although the size and scope of the American news media have changed dramatically since the 1980s, audience news interests and preferences have remained surprisingly static. Of the two major indices of interest that are the focus of this report — overall level of interest in news and preferences for various types of news — neither […]

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    Presidential Campaign Isn’t Making a Good First Impression

    The 2008 presidential campaign already seems to be wearing out its welcome with many Americans. A 52% majority of the public offers a negative assessment of the early-blooming campaign and just one-in-five has a kind thing to say.

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    Broad Interest in Bridge Disaster, Good Marks for Coverage

    Summary of Findings The bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed five people and raised concerns about infrastructure safety nationwide surpassed all other news stories last week both in public interest and media coverage. Nearly half (48%) say this was the story they followed most closely last week, far exceeding interest in Iraq, the week’s next […]

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    Internet News Audience Highly Critical of News Organizations

    Summary of Findings The American public continues to fault news organizations for a number of perceived failures, with solid majorities criticizing them for political bias, inaccuracy and failing to acknowledge mistakes. But some of the harshest indictments of the press now come from the growing segment that relies on the internet as its main source […]

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    A Summer of Discontent with Washington

    Summary of Findings As official Washington winds down for its summer holiday, all three branches of government are coming under fire from the American public. Just 29% approve of the way President Bush is handling his job, and only slightly more, 33%, approve of the job performance of the Democratic leaders of Congress. Even the […]

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    Public Blames Media for Too Much Celebrity Coverage

    Summary of Findings An overwhelming majority of the public (87%) says celebrity scandals receive too much news coverage. This criticism generally holds across most major demographic and political groups. Virtually no one thinks there is too little coverage of celebrity scandals. When asked who is most to blame for the amount of coverage these kinds […]

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    Hillary Clinton Most Visible Presidential Candidate

    Summary of Findings The 2008 presidential campaign remained a top tier news story last week both in terms of coverage and public interest. The campaign has been one of the top five most covered news stories for much of the year, and public interest has remained fairly consistent. This past week, the national news media […]

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    News of the Week Doesn’t Grab Public’s Attention

    Summary of Findings While the media focused intently last week on the escalating debate over U.S. policy in Iraq, the public took a typical summer hiatus from the major news stories of the week. The Iraq war, rather than the policy debate, was the news story the public focused on most closely, but even attention […]