Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Over the past year, the Tea Party movement has emerged on the political scene. A majority of the public has heard about the Tea Party protests that have taken place in the U.S. and about a quarter of Americans say they agree with the movement. Tea Party backers overwhelmingly identify with or lean to the […]
The media’s attention was divided between Port au Prince and Massachusetts last week, and the two stories highlighted significant differences in editorial priorities, particularly in the cable news universe. Meanwhile, Barack Obama’s one-year anniversary as President triggered a wave of evaluations that tended toward the bearish.
In the wake of the failed terrorist attack on a jetliner on Christmas Day, the public has become far more concerned that anti-terrorism policies fail to protect the country – and far less concerned that they restrict civil liberties. In the current survey, 58% say their greater concern is that government anti-terrorism policies have not […]
Newspaper coverage of the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal grew more intense this spring than at any time since 2002, and European newspapers devoted even more ink to the story than American papers did, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. The heavy coverage in Europe was a reversal of the pattern […]
The media last week were focused squarely on politicians. While Obama’s health care gamble was the top story, Jim Bunning’s quixotic Senate crusade, a Texas gubernatorial primary and the resignation of a powerful House committee chairman were also big news. The only non-politics story in the top five was the tragedy in Chile.
News meets a mixture of social, civic, personally-enriching, and work-related needs in people’s lives. The 93% of Americans who say they follow the news at least occasionally report a variety of reasons for doing so. Surprisingly, the most popular reasons for following the news do not relate to personal entertainment or professional motivations. Instead, they […]
The top reasons people follow the news News meets a mixture of social, civic, personally-enriching, and work-related needs in people’s lives. The 93% of Americans who say they follow the news at least occasionally report a variety of reasons for doing so. Surprisingly, the most popular reasons for following the news do not relate to […]
As he approaches the end of his first year in office, a 49% plurality of the public approves of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president, while 42% d isapprove. This is largely unchanged from a 49% to 40% margin a month ago. Over the past year, Obama has seen his approval […]
The debate over the passage of health care reform reached unprecedented levels on blogs and Twitter last week, and the debate focused on both the value of the bill and the confrontations that surrounded its passing.