Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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What Happens to Your Local News Between 6 and 11? By Forrest Carr The good news is we news directors were right. That’s also the bad news. When the Project for Excellence in Journalism set out last year to study the effect of quality on ratings, it measured the most popular time slot in 20 […]
The news media offered the American public a fine education in campaign tactics but told them little about matters that actually will affect them as citizens in the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.
The study, the first of several the Project will provide through the course of the campaign, examined two weeks of coverage, enough to be sizable and still allow the results to be timely. Future studies will focus on other areas as well, such as the Internet and on additional cable outlets, though these reach far […]
Introduction and Summary The murderous rampage by a pair of high school students in Littleton, Colo. attracted by far the most public interest of any news story of 1999. The widespread attention focused on the April shootings at Columbine High made it the third most closely watched story of the 1990s, according to the Pew […]
A Small Boost for McCain Little has changed over the past month in the races for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations. Recent news coverage of problems with Gore’s campaign has done little to hurt him among Democrats, who continue to support him by a nearly two-to-one margin over Bradley (60% vs. 31%). In the […]
Introduction and Summary News of the disappearance and death of John F. Kennedy Jr. attracted a large news audience last week, but most Americans think that news organizations over-covered the story. More than eight-in-ten paid attention to news of the tragedy, and as many as 54% paid very close attention. It ranks as one of […]
Hillary, Fatigue and Gore Memories of the impeachment trial have begun to fade. Only 43% of Americans remember that Clinton’s Senate trial ended in 1999. This compares with 76% who knew in November 1991 that the Gulf War had ended earlier that year. Nonetheless, Clinton fatigue is still apparent. While Bill Clinton’s job approval ratings […]
Members of the news media — particularly those in the newsroom — feel caught in a pressure cycle. Working journalists say that business pressures undermine quality, which hurts credibility, which in turn causes lost audiences. And that cycles back to added business pressure. Although there are striking differences between news media executives and newsroom journalists […]
Introduction and Summary Journalists increasingly agree with public criticism of their profession and the quality of their work. Overwhelmingly, news media professionals say the lines have blurred between commentary and reporting and between entertainment and news. A growing number of reporters, editors and news executives also say that news reports are full of factual errors […]