A story that suddenly emerged from nowhere, the threat of a global influenza pandemic, sent the media into overdrive last week. The flu scare knocked a number of significant events out of the headlines and by week’s end, began to spawn a backlash.
Bloggers last week debated whether the worldwide swine flu outbreak was a serious public health menace or a case of excessive media hype. And Arlen Specter’s change of parties stirred a partisan debate over the state of the GOP.
Across countries and regions, the middle class is more likely to embrace more secular and more tolerant principles. Among the 13 countries in this study, religion was generally less important in the personal lives of middle class respondents, and they were less likely to say that believing in God is a prerequisite for a moral […]
Summary of Findings Americans tracked news about the fast-moving swine flu virus more closely than any other story last week, with most turning to television for details on its spread. Still, when people were asked to name which information source was most useful, the largest share chose the internet. The latest weekly News Interest Index […]
Overall, the Pew Global Attitudes analysis of middle-income countries found a linkage between economic prosperity and life satisfaction. To gauge life satisfaction, respondents were asked to place themselves on a “ladder of life,” where zero represents the worst possible life and 10 the best possible life. Middle-class respondents consistently gave more positive ratings to their […]
Venezuelan President’s Popularity Has Declined in Latin America
In another week with a mixed news agenda, the media provided some cautiously optimistic assessments of the troubled economy and offered some strikingly different treatment of the tax day tea party protests.
Summary of Findings No one has gotten more media coverage and attention in recent months than Barack Obama, but only about a third of Americans (34%) say they are hearing too much about the nation’s new president. More than half (54%) say they are hearing the right amount about Obama as he works to put […]