Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Introduction and Summary The U.S. Senate’s rejection of the underground nuclear test ban treaty has gone unnoticed by half of the public, and only one-in-ten Americans say they have heard a lot about why some in the Senate backed the treaty, while others opposed it. Just about half of respondents (49%) polled in a Pew […]
Introduction and Summary Americans are showing signs of disaffection with a presidential campaign that is just beginning. The public thinks the press and large campaign contributors are having too much influence on who gets nominated, and a 60% majority thinks voters themselves have too little say. The latest Pew Research Center survey, conducted on the […]
Introduction and Summary News of the disappearance and death of John F. Kennedy Jr. attracted a large news audience last week, but most Americans think that news organizations over-covered the story. More than eight-in-ten paid attention to news of the tragedy, and as many as 54% paid very close attention. It ranks as one of […]
Introduction and Summary American reaction to the end of the air war in Kosovo is mixed. While public support for intervention rebounded in the closing days of the conflict, there is little indication of public exaltation at its end. Two-thirds of the public (68%) now says the United States and NATO did the right thing […]
Introduction and Summary Public support for the war in the Balkans is fading. Approval of U.S. participation in the NATO effort has fallen to 53% from 62% in mid-April, and fewer Americans are paying very close attention to the air war now than just three weeks ago. At the same time, the public is increasingly […]
Introduction and Summary The Colorado school shootings evoked an extraordinary level of public attention. It is the third ranked news story of the 1990s in Pew Research Center surveys which have measured public attentiveness to more than 600 national and international stories since January 1990. Interest in the Littleton tragedy is comparable to the amount […]
Introduction and Summary Journalists increasingly agree with public criticism of their profession and the quality of their work. Overwhelmingly, news media professionals say the lines have blurred between commentary and reporting and between entertainment and news. A growing number of reporters, editors and news executives also say that news reports are full of factual errors […]
In an initiative to find the correlation between quality local television journalism and ratings PEJ brings the practice of benchmarking–identifying models of quality in an industry–to local TV news.
Introduction and Summary The anomalies of American public opinion continue even as the impeachment trial fades into history. Today, the public view of the state of the nation is much improved, despite the fact that a major component of that view — trust in government — remains low. Politically, the public expresses negative views of […]