Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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As the political battles over health care reform intensify, religious organizations are forcefully adding their voices to the debate. They have launched media campaigns both for and against the proposals under consideration by the U.S. Congress, appealing to millions of Americans through national radio and television ads, Internet webcasts, conference calls, petitions, prayer vigils and […]
The evangelical Christian movement historically has been defined by its members’ distinctive doctrinal standards and practices. Yet in recent years many Americans have come to understand evangelicals more by their political, rather than religious, identity. The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life invited Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, […]
Overview The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows. Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news […]
The internet is not changing the basic socio-economic character of Americans’ civic engagement. The well off and well educated dominate online civic activities such as emailing officials, making donations, or signing online petitions just as those…
Health care or zombies and cocaine? In the debate over which is better fodder for discussion, social media last week chose the latter pair—a simulation of a worldwide zombie attack and traces of cocaine on much of the U.S. currency. On YouTube, though, confrontations from the health care town hall meetings captured the most eyeballs.
The passing of the last of the fabled Kennedy brothers easily led last week’s news agenda and generated a host of storylines. And for the first time in more than a month, the fractious health care debate was relegated to the sidelines.
Results for this survey are based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International among a nationwide sample of 4,013 adults, 18 years of age or older. Interviews were conducted in two waves, the first from August 11-17, 2009 (Survey A) and the second from August 20-27, 2009 (Survey B). […]
Coverage of the debate over health care policy increased dramatically, dominating the news agenda last week. But with contentious shouting matches and overheated rhetoric driving the narrative, America’s news consumers may have gotten more heat than light.
Last week, for the first time in two months, the most discussed news story on Twitter was something other than unrest in Iran. Instead, it was Twitter itself and the outage the site faced on August 6. In the blogosphere, attention was focused on an unusual lawsuit. And on YouTube, the top videos involved rising political temperatures in the dog days of summer.