Politics goes mobile
More than a quarter of American adults – 26% – used their cell phones to learn about or participate in the 2010 mid-term election campaign.
The story from Egypt seemed to ebb and then peak last week, leading to a rush of coverage once the demonstrations turned into a successful revolution. No other story came close to generating that level of coverage last week. Now comes the hard part—understanding what will happen after Hosni Mubarak.
The online conversation last week focused heavily on the aftermath of the Arizona shooting spree that left six dead and 13 wounded. The most prominent element debated, according to a separate PEJ report released earlier this week, was the level of vitriol in political rhetoric today.
The public’s views of the Republican Party are little changed from September, before the party’s gains in the midterm election. Currently, 41% have a favorable opinion of the GOP while 52% have an unfavorable opinion. In September, 43% had a favorable view of the Republican Party and 49% had an unfavorable view. Views of the […]
If President Obama expected his State of the Union address to dominate the media narrative last week, those plans went awry when turmoil in a crucial Mideast ally threatened to remake the region and challenge U.S. strategy. And while coverage of the economy picked up last week, attention to the Tucson shooting plunged.
The top subjects for bloggers last week involved Washington-centric stories, but not the one that galvanized much of the mainstream media. The lead subject on Twitter was about online news judgment. And on YouTube, an eight-month-old clip featuring remarks by talk host Glenn Beck became the subject of a debate about inflammatory speech.
An overwhelming majority of voters (88%) report having seen or heard commercials for candidates running for office so far this year. This is comparable to the 89% of voters who said they had seen or heard campaign commercials at roughly the same point in the 2006 midterm cycle. Today, more than half of voters (56%) […]
As has been the case all year, voters’ preferences in the midterm elections remain divided. But for the first time, slightly more registered voters say they will vote for the Republican candidate in their district, or lean Republican, than say they will support a Democrat or lean Democratic (46% vs. 42%). In early September, 44% […]
The online rhetoric heated up last week as bloggers from the left and right responded to statements from two controversial GOP figures. On Twitter, users marveled over an unorthodox space launch while on YouTube, the subject of UFOs was front and center.