Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Two different destructive storms struck the continent and even in the dog days of summer, the presidential race continued to attract significant media interest. But several factors—an intelligence report, a senatorial statement, and a presidential analogy—all combined to re-ignite the debate over U.S. policy in Iraq.
Summary of Findings The bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed five people and raised concerns about infrastructure safety nationwide surpassed all other news stories last week both in public interest and media coverage. Nearly half (48%) say this was the story they followed most closely last week, far exceeding interest in Iraq, the week’s next […]
The arrest of O.J. Simpson not only conjured up memories of the famous murder trial of a dozen years ago, it also recalled the media feeding frenzy that surrounded that trial. And as was the case back in 1995, the story last week was a made-for-TV drama.
The deadly collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis last week quickly became one of the most heavily covered events of the year so far. And while it was the top story in every medium, coverage was particularly intense on cable TV, where officials, rescuers and even some victims told their stories.
Summary of Findings The 2008 presidential campaign began much earlier than usual, but public interest in the campaign is at most only modestly higher than in previous campaigns. While Democrats are following the campaign more closely than at the same stage in previous primary contests, Republicans are no more engaged than in the past, resulting […]
This study compares the news stories from user-determined news aggregators with those that were part of PEJ’s News Coverage Index. In this study PEJ chose to look at three different independent user-news sites: Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit. In addition, PEJ looked at the three components of Yahoo News that depend on user input. These are […]
With the news split between stories like the Utah Mine collapse and the resignation of Karl Rove, the leading topic in the media last week was he 2008 campaign, but only barely. And by week’s end the nations’ economic turbulence was grabbing headlines.
That’s the number of Americans who now seek out news on the internet on a typical day. The daily audience online for news has grown dramatically since 2002 — a surge fueled by the rise in home broadband connections.
Summary of Findings An overwhelming majority of the public (87%) says celebrity scandals receive too much news coverage. This criticism generally holds across most major demographic and political groups. Virtually no one thinks there is too little coverage of celebrity scandals. When asked who is most to blame for the amount of coverage these kinds […]