Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Summary of Findings With less than three weeks to go before the election, there is a growing sense among the public that the tone of the presidential campaign has changed. A majority of Americans (55%) now say that the campaign is too negative. This is up significantly from 43% a month ago and represents a […]
Newspapers are suffering historic cuts in staffing and drops in revenue, while technological advances are creating new opportunities. What is disappearing from newspapers and what is being added?
Join the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life on election night 2008 and the following day for analysis of religion’s role in the election, a preliminary breakdown of how the religious public voted and more. The Pew Forum will host three press conference calls for journalists starting at midnight on election night and continuing […]
Overview For more than a decade, the audiences for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news online has surged. However, today it is not a choice between traditional sources and the internet for the core elements of today’s news audiences. A sizable minority of Americans find themselves at […]
Summary of Findings Strong majorities of the public say the press has been fair to John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. But fewer than four-in-ten (38%) say the press has been fair to Sarah Palin. Many more believe the press has been too tough on Palin (38%) than say it has been too easy […]
Summary of Findings Interest in news about the U.S. economy skyrocketed last week, with 70% of Americans following economic developments very closely, up from 56% the previous week. Interest in economic news is broadly bipartisan with equal proportions of Republicans, Democrats and independents following news about current economic conditions very closely. The public also paid […]
For this analysis, the public was divided into four segments based on their interest in news, their primary news sources, and how often they use the internet to get news. An overwhelming majority of people (82%) follow the news with some regularity. Just 14% in this survey are classified as Disengaged, as they expressed a […]
Summary of Findings As Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president and frame his campaign message for the fall, many Americans still do not have a clear understanding of where he stands on the issues. Public awareness of Obama’s policy positions has increased modestly over the past month. Still, fewer than […]
In the midst of a rapidly changing society, Chinese news source choices are clear and consistent with those of publics across the globe: television dominates. This tendency to turn to television is not new – overwhelming majorities in China reported using television as a news source in both 2002 and 2007. Many also turn to […]