Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Frame The findings suggest that the notion that the press builds most stories around just a couple of story telling frames, such as conflict, is untrue. Newspapers, at least in their front pages, employ a variety of frames, and no one of them dominates. The study identified thirteen possible frames for news stories to test […]
Local versus National Papers There were some noticeable differences in the way local and regional papers in the study framed stories versus the three national papers, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The differences suggest that the front pages of local papers carry more straight forward reporting that focuses […]
Placement If one looks at how prominently stories were played on the front page, it tends to slightly reinforce the competitive frames of horse race, conflict, and injustice. They account for 35% of all lead stories, versus their overall representation as 31% of all stories. Conversely, the three explanatory frames (history, process and trends) are […]
Trigger In addition to identifying what narrative frames journalists used to present the news, the study tried to find what “triggered” each story to become news in the first place. Was a poll released? Did a news maker make a statement? Did the news organization decide to engage in enterprise on this topic? We called […]
Introduction and Summary Political consultants have clear consciences: Most do not think campaign practices that suppress turnout, use scare tactics and take facts out of context are unethical. They are nearly unanimous — 97% — in the belief that negative advertising is not wrong, and few blame themselves for public disillusionment with the political process. […]
Survey Findings Pre-election polling is tricky work. A number of unknown factors can stand in the way of accurate predictions — problems with identifying registered and likely voters, uncertainties about voter turnout, and last-minute shifts in candidate preference. But estimating voter preferences in biracial elections has been especially difficult. Pre-election surveys, even those taken just […]
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 […]