Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Last week the economy—or one nuanced element of it—led bloggers’ conversation. And the No. 2 topic was a famous athlete’s domestic situation. Meanwhile news (and rumors) about the iPad topped a tech-heavy news agenda on Twitter.
Overview There are many more ways to get the news these days, and as a consequence Americans are spending more time with the news than over much of the past decade. Digital platforms are playing a larger role in news consumption, and they seem to be more than making up for modest declines in the […]
Summary of Findings The dramatic rescue of 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for more than two months dominated the public’s news interest last week, while the media focused on both the miners’ saga and the midterm Congressional elections. With the Nov. 2 elections fast approaching, the percent of the public tracking election news very closely […]
Summary of Findings While the media provided heavy coverage of the congressional elections last week, the public continued to track news about the nation’s struggling economy more closely than news about the midterm vote. About four-in-ten (41%) say they followed news about the economy very closely last week, while 30% say they followed news about […]
The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the death of Elizabeth Edwards both received substantial coverage, but it was the reaction to a compromise on the expiring Bush-era tax cuts that really galvanized the press last week.
The social media were galvanized last week by the WikiLeaks dissemination of secret U.S. documents—sharing and commenting on a number of different elements in the story. Twitter users drew even more attention, though, to a major scientific discovery largely uncovered in the mainstream press.
There was a significant spike in coverage of the troubled U.S. economy last week as Washington seemed to start tackling some of the key issues more aggressively. And if Julian Assange wasn’t already a household word, the man famous for sharing U.S. secrets generated enormous attention with new revelations.