Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The blogosphere resembled one of those old CNN Crossfire shows last week as liberals and conservatives frequently faced off on such issues as federal assistance programs, charges of bigotry and opposition to President Obama.
In addition to looking at how the mainstream media covered African Americans, this study also examined how issues of race were treated in the African American press. To do so, we looked at coverage of the biggest race story of the year, the Henry Louis Gates arrest and its aftermath. For this separate analysis, […]
The debate over the Islamic Center and mosque near Ground Zero in New York was a hotly contested issue for bloggers for the third week in a row as the focus turned to the motives of those opposing the construction. On Twitter, a new phone app feature from Google created a mostly positive buzz.
George Mason University Professor Peter Mandaville, Dilwar Hussain of the Islamic Foundation, and Maha Azzam of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House discussed key findings of a Pew Forum study containing profiles of some of the oldest, largest and most influential Muslim groups – from the Muslim Brotherhood to mystical Sufi orders and networks of religious scholars.
European campaigns to ban burqas, the Swiss vote to bar new construction of minarets and attempted terrorist acts in the United States have renewed questions and concerns about the compatibility of Islam with Western society. Swiss-born scholar and philosopher of Islam Tariq Ramadan has written and spoken on the subject, generating widespread debate and reaction. […]
Bloggers last week returned to two issues that generated interest in recent weeks. For the second time in a month, Afghanistan led the news in the blogosphere. And musician Dave Matthews sparked a second round of heated online debate with some comments about racism. On Twitter, for this week at least, the focus moved beyond Twitter itself.
Barack Obama’s job approval ratings have remained stable over the course of the last several months. Currently, 52% of Americans approve of the president’s job performance while 36% disapprove. Eight-in-ten (80%) Democrats approve of the way Obama is handling his job, compared with 49% of independents and just 20% of Republicans. As with his overall […]