Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The President’s long-awaited decision on how to wage war in Afghanistan was the No. 1 story last week, surpassing coverage of the two big domestic issues—the economy and health care. But a scandal-scorched athlete and some White House party crashers found their way into the top stories as well.
Summary of Findings In a week that saw passage of health care legislation by the Senate Finance Committee, news about health care reform remained front-and-center on the public’s news agenda, topping both public interest and news coverage. There also has been a sharp increase in the proportion of Americans saying they expect a health care […]
A vote in Switzerland to ban the construction of Muslim minarets and controversies over global warming research led conversations in the blogosphere last week. On Twitter, it was a story about a local billboard campaign with unintended consequences. And on YouTube, a pop singer made her second appearance in recent weeks.
Summary of Findings The public continued to closely track news about health care reform last week, while the media divided its attention across a range of foreign and domestic stories. A third (33%) of the public says they followed the debate over health care reform more closely than other top stories last week, while 22% […]
Charges against U.S. servicemen who captured one of the most wanted men in Iraq drew major attention from the blogosphere last week. A controversial singer was the hottest topic on Twitter. And a YouTube video intended to paint an unflattering portrait of Sarah Palin supporters was viewed more than 1 million times.
Overview As the current decade draws to a close, relatively few Americans have positive things to say about it. By roughly two-to-one, more say they have a generally negative (50%) rather than a generally positive (27%) impression of the past 10 years. This stands in stark contrast to the public’s recollection of other decades in […]
Coverage of the Army base massacre continued to dominate headlines as some of last week’s coverage examined whether Nidal Malik Hasan should have been stopped before his November 5 attack. And by week’s end, the plan to bring alleged 9/11 conspirators to trial in New York was dominating the headlines.
Summary of Findings The first week of fall brought little change to the public’s news agenda with the debate over health care reform continuing to top public interest. However, the news media play much less of a role in shaping views of health care reform and the economy – where personal experiences are an important […]
As the political battles over health care reform intensify, religious organizations are forcefully adding their voices to the debate. They have launched media campaigns both for and against the proposals under consideration by the U.S. Congress, appealing to millions of Americans through national radio and television ads, Internet webcasts, conference calls, petitions, prayer vigils and […]
Coverage of health care was up last week, the economy was down and the war in Afghanistan remained about the same. But together, this trio continued their run atop the news agenda, a pattern we began to see settle in earlier this fall.