Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Introduction and Summary A nationwide Pew Research Center survey finds voting intentions shifting significantly in favor of Democratic congressional candidates going into the final days of the 1998 midterm election campaign. For the first time this fall, the new survey shows likely voters equally divided between the two parties.[1. Likely voters are derived from series […]
Congressional Ballot Remains Close Republicans have not garnered a big boost with voters from either the ongoing Clinton scandal or the recent upswing in the GOP’s image. Support for the two parties remains split both among registered voters (45% Republican vs. 46% Democrat) and the more narrowly-defined group of most likely voters (48% Republican vs. […]
Introduction and Summary American voters divided their support for Republican and Democratic congressional candidates nearly equally in the weeks between President Clinton’s televised admission that he had an improper relationship with Monica Lewinsky and news of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s report to Congress on the matter. But with two months to go until the midterm […]
Topic The range of topics was spread fairly evenly. With one exception, the seven papers studied demonstrated no clear pattern as to which story topics made page one and which didn’t. The most dominant topic was politics, though the study occurred at the height of the impeachment process, so this number comes as no surprise […]
The average American dedicates more than an hour a day to the news. More Americans read, watch or listen to the news each day than exercise or use a personal computer. Indeed, daily consumption of news appears thin only when compared to personal activities such as family meals and calling friends or relatives to talk. […]
With Internet use skyrocketing in virtually every major demographic group, more than one-third of Americans (36%) are now going online from work or home. What’s more, those who go online have a large appetite for news and information and are turning to the Internet as yet another news source. The Internet is quickly becoming a […]
Political Interest Down from ’94 A sharp decline in the number of Americans tuned in to government and public affairs offers new evidence that the November election may not spark much interest. Indeed, just 9% of Americans are following news about candidates and elections in their states very closely. Interest in the elections is lackluster […]
The public’s news interests help explain the relative resilience of these news sources. Crime, health and community — the focus of much of today’s local news — are the subjects that most interest Americans. The public expresses considerably less interest in news about political figures and events in Washington and international affairs — topics which […]
Public displeasure with the national news media is clear, but this sentiment has not eroded the credibility of major news organizations. While public evaluations of most news organizations’ credibility are lower than they were in the mid-1980s, the basic believability ratings have not changed since the Center’s last survey in 1996. The words people choose […]
Overwhelmingly, Americans place a premium on accuracy and timeliness and, to a somewhat lesser degree, information that is helpful and hard to find. Fully 90% say that it is important that the news is accurate; 88% say it is important for the news to be timely and up-to-date. Over three-quarters (78%) want the news to […]