Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2007 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Philip Jenkins, a Penn State University professor and one of the first scholars to call attention to the rising demographic power of Christians in […]
Conference Call with Reporters In a telephone conference call for journalists, the directors of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center discussed the findings of an unprecedented survey on how Latinos are transforming the religious landscape in the U.S. The study explores the distinctive characteristics of Hispanics’ religious beliefs […]
Summary of Findings A survey conducted in association with National Public Radio A large majority of the American public thinks the country is more politically polarized than in the past, and an even greater number expresses a strong desire for political compromise. Fully three-quarters say they like political leaders who are willing to compromise, compared […]
For much of 2007, the conflict in Iraq has dominated news coverage. Last week, a scenario that had largely been confined to a few cable hosts—the role of Iran and the possibility of war there—made its way onto the media agenda.
Presidential politics and Iraq managed to attract their fair share of coverage last week. But an allegedly homicidal astronaut and a troubled pinup girl really commandeered the media’s attention. The coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith was cast as sociology but it had the intensity of voyeurism.
Exit polls show that the religious divide that has come to characterize American politics persisted in the 2006 election; white evangelicals and those who attend church frequently continued to support Republicans by large margins, while secular voters and infrequent churchgoers were similarly lopsided in their support of Democrats. But a survey by the Pew Research […]