Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Report Summary American journalists have a different view of the way they do their job than does the public they serve and the leaders they cover. The outside world strongly faults the news media for its negativism. Journalists at all levels are equally adamant in rejecting this charge. They are no more adversarial than they […]
Report Summary Americans see less gridlock in Washington after the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, but few think they will be helped personally by the new legislation that has been considered, and most remain very dissatisfied with progress being made on the nation’s top problems.
Report Summary Fewer people are reading newspapers and watching network television news these days. It is unclear whether this is a continuation of the long-term decline in audiences of both media, or whether it is a result of the O.J. Simpson trial, which has gripped the attention of a significant percentage of core news consumers.
Report Summary Newt Gingrich is an enigma to the public. On balance, Americans approve of the job he is doing as Speaker of the House, but they are wary of his character, concerned about his extreme points of view, and wonder about his compassion. There is much more of a consensus that he has the […]
Report Summary Who turned out and who tuned into the 1994 Congressional election and campaign.
Summary of Findings This joint project of the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Columbia Journalism Review tracked the volume and tone of press coverage of the health care debate from September of 1993 through November of 1994. This final report summarizes the broadest findings of the […]
Summary Polls consistently show the American public to be two-minded about trade. But common wisdom is reversed on this issue. Instead of being ideologically conservative and operationally liberal, the public is ideologically liberal about international trade — in favor of free trade in principal — and operationally conservative. It complains that some jobs and products […]
Report Summary The GOP is riding high with the public in the after-glow of its big election victory. Most Americans (57%) are happy the Republicans won, approve of their plans and policies for the future (52%), and think party leaders will be successful in getting things done in Washington (62%).
Report Summary With few exceptions, American voters were not very pleased with the way the press covered the fall election campaign. Exit surveys, which questioned over 20,000 voters as they left the polling booth, found the media getting average or below average grades for its work on the midterm elections. Fewer than half of respondents […]