Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The average American dedicates more than an hour a day to the news. More Americans read, watch or listen to the news each day than exercise or use a personal computer. Indeed, daily consumption of news appears thin only when compared to personal activities such as family meals and calling friends or relatives to talk. […]
Political Interest Down from ’94 A sharp decline in the number of Americans tuned in to government and public affairs offers new evidence that the November election may not spark much interest. Indeed, just 9% of Americans are following news about candidates and elections in their states very closely. Interest in the elections is lackluster […]
Table 1. Initial and Reluctant Respondents: A Demographic Profile (Based on unweighted data) Amenable Respondents Reluctant Respondents (No refusal) (Refusal conversion) (N=917) (N=542) % % Sex Male 45 41 Female 55 59 Race White 79 83 Black 13 9 Other 8 8 Age Under 30 20 18 30-49 44 40 50-64 16 20 65+ 17 […]
The data used in this analysis are from two national telephone surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates. The two surveys — the “Standard” survey and the “Rigorous” survey — asked exactly the same questions, but for experimental purposes the surveys […]
Introduction and Summary Americans continue to express a strong sense of individualism. They believe their destiny is in their own hands and that hard work will be rewarded. But they also believe that society should level the playing field so that everyone has an equal chance to get ahead. The public credits business for much […]
Demographics On the whole, both samples (even unweighted) fairly closely reflected the American public. In most demographic categories, both samples differed from U.S. Census figures by 4 percentage points — the statistical margin of error — or less.[1. All demographic comparisons presented in this section are based on unweighted data. Most surveys use mathematical weighting […]
Introduction and Summary President Clinton’s lofty performance ratings are benefiting the Democratic Party, which is now in a stronger position with American voters than it has been for some time. In contrast, continuing negative perceptions of Republican congressional leaders are hamstringing the image of their party. By the biggest margin of the decade, the public […]
Introduction and Summary A unique survey research experiment finds that public opinion polls, as they are typically conducted, do not understate conservative opinions or support for the Republican Party. Conservative critics of the polls have charged that these surveys are politically biased. A methodological study by the Pew Research Center finds little evidence of this, […]
Today, what Americans know may differ greatly depending on their source of news. In the second part of the study, looking at a broader universe of the news media in the fall of 1997, we also found different kinds of news media offering markedly different definitions of news depending on what they perceived their market […]
Public satisfaction with the state of the nation has lifted out of the doldrums of the early 1990s, with 46% today saying they are satisfied. While this is up 20% points or more from the period 1993 through mid-1996, half of all Americans (50%) still describe themselves as dissatisfied with the way things are going. […]