Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Numbers Show Staff, Not Stuff, Wins Viewers By Marion Just, Rosalind Levine and Todd Belt If you want to boost ratings, helicopters won’t do it. Hiring more skilled people will. This is one of the discoveries about managing resources contained in this year’s study of local TV news. We sent detailed questionnaires about policies and […]
What Happens to Your Local News Between 6 and 11? By Forrest Carr The good news is we news directors were right. That’s also the bad news. When the Project for Excellence in Journalism set out last year to study the effect of quality on ratings, it measured the most popular time slot in 20 […]
What Four Quality Stations Can Teach You By John Corporon Most industries use benchmarking — identifying models of successful excellence — as a way of improving quality. The case study method used in top business schools is predicated on this theory. Local TV news hasn’t benefited much from benchmarking. Hard data about what works journalistically […]
The Public Remains Disconnected In spite of the accelerated pace of the 2000 presidential campaign, only 16% of the public is following news about candidates very closely. Interest in the campaign has not meaningfully increased since July, despite competitive contests for both parties’ nominations. Even fewer Americans closely followed the recent GOP candidate debates. Less […]
Introduction and Summary Americans anticipate many perils in the next century, but none of them, no matter how grave, can dim the public’s positive view of the future. Despite consensus forecasts of natural disasters, environmental calamities and international terrorism, Americans are near unanimous in their confidence that life will get better for themselves, their families […]
STAUNCH CONSERVATIVES PAST TYPOLOGY COUNTERPART: Enterprisers 10% OF ADULT POPULATION 12% OF REGISTERED VOTERS PARTY ID: 72% Republican; 24% Independent, Lean Republican COMMENTS: As in 1994, this extremely partisan Republican group’s politics are driven by a belief in the free enterprise system and social values that reflect a conservative agenda. Dissatisfied with the state of […]
Introduction and Summary Even though Americans say that issues matter most, candidates’ personal qualities may be decisive in a campaign without dominant issues. Voters make fine distinctions, however, about what they want to know about candidates personally. Americans strongly reject press inquiry into most avenues of candidates’ private lives, yet at the same time place […]
Introduction and Summary Americans are showing signs of disaffection with a presidential campaign that is just beginning. The public thinks the press and large campaign contributors are having too much influence on who gets nominated, and a 60% majority thinks voters themselves have too little say. The latest Pew Research Center survey, conducted on the […]
Introduction and Summary The prospects for a third party presidential candidate appear dim. Americans are reasonably satisfied with the existing field of candidates for the 2000 presidential election, and overwhelming numbers say they would not consider voting for outsiders Jesse Ventura or Ross Perot. Three-in-four people say they would be satisfied with a contest between […]
A stream of candidate announcements and polls showing Texas Governor George W. Bush leading Vice President Al Gore have spurred interest in the 2000 presidential contest. But with the nominating conventions still more than 16 months away, what do these early polls mean for would-be nominees? A look back at nearly 40 years of early […]