“First of the Fall” GOP Debate
On Wednesday evening, eight Republican presidential candidates met in a debate at the University of New Hampshire. How did candidate views compare with public opinion on the topics discussed?
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
While crime coverage may seem like a staple of our news diet, last week was actually unusual in that three frightening stories of random violence generated coverage—with two making the top-10 story list. When it comes to crime however, the media attention span is usually short-lived.
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 […]
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 […]
How important are PSCs? There are many issues related to the war in Iraq that compete for coverage on a daily basis. U.S. military personnel and their families far outnumber private military contractors. Still, funding for PSCs comes, directly or indirectly, from taxpayer dollars. And even within the military there is heated debate about the […]
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% […]
Even when they were covered, PSCs were often tangential aspects of larger stories about other Iraq-related issues or events. Many sprang from U.S. government actions or reports, such as the Washington Post’s April 23, 2005 story “Contractor, Army Office Fell Short” which ran on the front of the financial section.. Another example was USA Today’s […]
One thing Web sites clearly promote and project is an image of the candidate that they (and their strategists) think will work best. So what are those images? What buzz words are popular this year—and which ones define which parties? The Most Frequent Words The words “children” and “family” are the next most popular. They […]