Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Summary of Findings As oil from an undersea well continued to flow into the Gulf of Mexico last week, Americans tracked the worsening environmental disaster much more closely than any other major news story. About half (49%) say this was the story they followed most closely. Press coverage was divided between the oil leak (17% […]
Attitudes and actions Over time, users have become less likely to express concern about the amount of information available about them online. [14.numoffset=”14″ As is noted elsewhere in this report, this survey was fielded before Facebook announced the most recent and controversial changes to its default privacy settings.] To even the most casual news observer, […]
Summary of Findings Americans continued to track news about the new health care law more closely than any other major story last week, though the media devoted the most attention to the deadly explosion in a West Virginia coal mine—and just 3% of coverage to health care reform. A third of the public (33%) says […]
Searching for others Seven in ten online adults have searched online for information about other people. While users have become more curious about our own digital footprints over time, they have also become more likely to search for information about a range of other people in their lives. When asked about eight different groups of […]
Views of the Islamic extremist groups Hamas and Hezbollah are, with few exceptions, largely negative. In fact, a majority in only one country – Jordan – holds a favorable opinion of both the militant Palestinian Islamic organization Hamas and Shia Islamic group Hezbollah based in Lebanon. Certainly, many Palestinians and Egyptians also embrace Hamas and […]
Summary of Findings Americans say they followed news about the new health care law more closely than any other major story last week, but many also kept a close watch on the economy and the ash-spewing volcano in Iceland that disrupted international air travel. Though media coverage of the health care debate has dropped significantly […]
Searching for ourselves online The majority of adult internet users (57%) now use search engines to find information about themselves online, up from 47% in 2006. Internet users have become increasingly likely to use search engines to check up on their digital footprints. Since our last survey in 2006, search engines have vastly expanded their […]
Teens and online social networks Teens continue to be avid users of social networking websites – as of September 2009, 73% of online American teens ages 12 to 17 used an online social network website, a statistic that has continued to climb upwards from 55% in November 2006 and 65% in February 2008. As we […]
Overview The public has consistently expressed strong interest in the health care debate, but relatively few Americans can correctly answer two key questions related to the Senate’s consideration of health care legislation. In the latest installment of the Pew Research Center’s News IQ Quiz, just 32% know that the Senate passed its version of the […]
On April 19, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, a case that will determine whether a public institution can refuse to officially recognize a religiously based organization that prevents those who do not share its religious and moral values from becoming voting members. The case arose […]