Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The Public’s Mood Mellows Satisfaction with the state of the nation is down slightly over the past 12 months, though still high relative to the early 1990s. In the current survey, 47% of citizens say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country, down from recent highs of 56% in August […]
Might-Miss TV? Just one-in-ten Americans (13%) plan to watch all or most of the television coverage of the GOP convention, while another 28% say they’ll watch some of it. Older Americans are both more interested in the convention and more apt to watch the television coverage. But even among Republicans, there is scant interest in […]
Coverage of Issues, Debates Popular … Most Americans say they want news organizations to tell them what the candidates stand for — not what they are like personally. Fully 85% say they want more news coverage of the candidates discussing their positions on issues, while 64% want more coverage of the candidates debating each other. […]
Tuned Out The presidential campaign is not on the minds of most Americans. Fewer than half of registered voters (46%) say they have thought a lot about the election. That represents a modest decline from a similar point in the campaign four years ago (when 50% said they gave the campaign a lot of thought) […]
Americans Gambling Online Figures from a phone survey of 3,035 American Internet users from March 1 through June 30 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that some 4.5 million Americans have gambled online or played a lottery. That”s about 5% of those who have online access. On a typical day, about 1 […]
Introduction and Summary Americans are more satisfied with their choice of presidential candidates this year than in 1996 and 1992, and they are, if anything, less critical of the way the campaigns are being conducted and covered by the news media than they were at comparable points in those elections. Yet voters are more disengaged […]
The same demographic groups which are moving away from the nightly network news in the greatest numbers are some of the very same groups which are moving toward online news use at the highest rates — more affluent, more well-educated Americans. Indeed, as the number of people regularly getting news online has grown, so has […]
The revolution in communications technology is clearly changing the way Americans live, and it has created a highly competitive environment for those who provide news and information to the public. Nearly seven-in-ten Americans (68%) now use a computer on at least an occasional basis, up from 61% in 1998 and 58% in 1996. Almost as […]
The decline in the number of Americans who say they enjoy the news is a continuation of a long-term trend. In 1995, a majority (54%) said they enjoyed keeping up with the news a lot. That number fell to 50% in 1998 and 45% this year. While Americans remain generally satisfied with the quality of […]
Introduction and Summary Traditional news outlets are feeling the impact of two distinct and powerful trends. Internet news has not only arrived, it is attracting key segments of the national audience. At the same time, growing numbers of Americans are losing the news habit. Fewer people say they enjoy following the news, and fully half […]