Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Voters continue to be divided in their preferences for this November’s Congressional elections – 45% support the Republican candidate in their district while 45% favor the Democratic candidate. These numbers are nearly identical to those in March and have been relatively stable over the course of this election cycle. At this point in 2006, Democrats […]
While the recent British balloting may have been confusing for many news consumers, bloggers eagerly dissected the results, devoting as much time to the election as any story so far in 2010. On YouTube, the top video, of a controversial police raid, was viewed 1.2 million times.
As Barack Obama considers potential nominees to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, opinion about the ideological makeup of the court is divided with 24% describing the court as “liberal”, and an equal number saying it is “conservative.” A plurality (36%) considers the current Supreme Court to be “middle of the road.” Far fewer see […]
The drive for health care reform legislation proved to be the most passionate and polarizing policy fight of Barack Obama’s first year in office, with the public and Congress deeply divided over the initiative. And much of that battle played out through a changing media universe. A new PEJ study, examining 10 months of health care stories, identifies some of the key elements of that coverage.
Civil liberties were the hot topics across social media last week. Bloggers debated the Supreme Court decision on gun ownership and Finland’s law making Internet access a legal right. Twitter drew attention to the discovery of a privacy leak on the website Foursquare. On YouTube, a video purportedly showing oily rain in the Gulf region led to controversy.
Damage control in Washington overtook damage control in the Gulf of Mexico as the BP oil spill generated its biggest week of media coverage since the April 20 rig explosion that triggered the disaster. The narrative was driven, in large part, by a president who spoke to the nation and an oil executive who took a pounding from Congress.
Overview There is broad public agreement that past government policies intended to address the financial crisis and recession have not worked. At the same time, there is very little agreement about what the government should do now to deal with the nation’s biggest economic concern – the job situation. None of the options currently under […]
A judge’s decision to overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage became a reason to celebrate for many bloggers last week. Others rallied behind the website WikiLeaks, following its release of secret information about the war in Afghanistan. On Twitter, the decision by 40 wealthy Americans to donate money to charity drew the most attention. And on YouTube, an Alabama crime stopper became a web sensation.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a fixture in the headlines for over a month, narrowly edged some attention-grabbing election results as the top story last week. The legislative effort to regulate Wall Street drove economic coverage and two international stories rounded out the roster of top subjects.
After several weeks of decreasing coverage, the Gulf oil saga spiked upward last week amid news of possible success in stopping the flow. Coverage of a bill to regulate the financial sector, infighting among Democrats, violence and progress in Afghanistan and the death of a baseball mogul rounded out the roster of top stories.