Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Summary of Findings In an era where the news is often dominated by war, tragedy and scandal, America’s parents are more likely to encourage their children to follow the news than they are to shield them from it. Among parents with school-aged children (kindergarten through 12th grade), six-in-ten (61%) say they often or sometimes encourage […]
After dominating news coverage for the first three months of the year, the disagreement over U.S. strategy in Iraq took a back seat in recent weeks to such topics as the presidential campaign and the battle over immigration. But what happened last week in Washington re-ignited old passions and re-engaged the press.
President Bush triggered a major political brouhaha when he commuted the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby. And the campaign fundraising numbers brought good and bad tidings to various presidential contenders. But a surprising twist in the U.K. terror saga dominated the media agenda last week.
Summary of Findings News about an Atlanta man infected with a dangerous form of tuberculosis drew a large audience last week. The saga of the man’s illness and his travels abroad was the second most closely followed news story of the week – trailing only the situation in Iraq. Nearly a quarter of the public […]
Summary of Findings A story which received relatively little media coverage last week attracted a great deal of public interest. The recall of more than 100 brands of pet food due to possible contamination was the second most closely followed news story last week. Only the war in Iraq attracted more public interest. Nearly three-in-ten […]
The war in Iraq eclipsed all other news in the first three months of 2007. The 2008 presidential race was the next biggest story, and most of that was about Democrats. These are among the findings in PEJ’s first quarterly report of its News Coverage Index, which allows us to probe the data more deeply than we can on a weekly basis.