Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Introduction The 2008 presidential election race has produced its share of internet firsts. Three of the Democratic candidates—John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama—essentially declared their candidacies online. Obama has broken fundraising records, mostly through online contributions. Citizen questions for key party debates were solicited and delivered via videos posted on YouTube—including one from a […]
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attracted more attention from the press than John McCain last week. But the two Democrats were often engaged in serious damage control while the GOP’s candidate was basking in some pretty positive coverage.
When the top stories of the quarter are put into the larger category of general topics, even broader patterns emerge. The war in Iraq becomes part of a larger grouping of coverage of U.S. foreign affairs. The campaign becomes part of a broader topic of politics. Anna Nicole becomes part of a grouping that includes […]
Virginia Tech Shooting Tops Year On the morning of Monday April 16, a deeply disturbed Virginia Tech student went on a shooting rampage on campus that claimed 33 lives, including his own. By the end of that wrenching week, some member of the student body exhausted by both the trauma and the press attention, composed […]
Summary of Findings Last week’s shootings at Virginia Tech have had little immediate impact on public opinion about gun control. Six-in-ten Americans say it is more important to control gun ownership, while 32% say it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns. Opinion has changed little since 2004, when 58% […]
It’s probably no surprise that the college campus massacre proved to be the biggest talk show topic of the year. But while there were plenty of subplots to talk about, radio and cable hosts managed to seize on some of “hot button” issues to emerge from the worst shooting spree in the nation’s history.
