Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

News Habits & Media

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News Media Tracker

Americans now navigate a quickly changing information environment, with a wide variety of news sources across many different platforms and channels. Explore data on how Americans use, trust and distrust 30 major news sources with our interactive tool.

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    Many Fault Media Coverage of Health Care Debate

    Summary of Findings As the fight in Washington over health care reform continues to dominate public attention and media coverage, most Americans are critical of the way news organizations are explaining key elements of the debate. News about proposed health care legislation was the most closely followed story of last week, just as it had […]

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    Health Care Front-And-Center on Public’s News Agenda

    Summary of Findings The public sharpened its focus on health care reform last week, following news about the debate in Washington more closely than any other story. Interest in health care reform has steadily increased in recent weeks as coverage – including a prime-time presidential news conference – has intensified. Nearly a third (31%) name […]

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    Bloggers Seize on Obama’s Slipping Poll Numbers

    While the mainstream press focused on the health care battle last week, the online conversation centered on sobering survey results for President Obama. Bloggers also jumped into the racially charged “Skip” Gates case. Iran was again the hot Twitter topic and a confrontation between David Beckham and angry soccer fans led on YouTube.

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    From Health Care to “Skip” Gates, Obama Makes Big News

    With the political battle over health care legislation intensifying in Washington, that subject generated its highest level of coverage, by far, last week. But a remark by the president at the end of his health care press conference quickly changed the news agenda.

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    Health Care: Important, Interesting, But Hard to Follow

    Summary of Findings The debate over revamping the nation’s health care system is drawing increased public attention. A third (33%) say they are following the health care debate very closely, up from 24% the previous week. And while news coverage of health care also increased over the past week, a sizable minority of Americans (45%) […]

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    Americans Remained Focused on Michael Jackson

    Summary of Findings The death of pop star Michael Jackson continued to grab public attention last week, with Americans saying it was the story they followed most closely for the third straight week. Moreover, Jackson’s death was by far the week’s most talked about news story. About three-in-ten (29%) say they followed Jackson’s memorial service […]

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    Public Hearing More Negative News About Economy

    Summary of Findings From January through May, a growing proportion of Americans said they were hearing a mix of good and bad news about the economy. More recently, however, there has been a steady increase in the share saying that the economic news is mostly bad. Currently, 41% say they are hearing mostly bad news […]

Signature Reports

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Pew Research Center illustration for America's News Influencers report; photos via Getty Images

America’s News Influencers

This study explores the makeup of the social media news influencer universe, including who they are, what content they create and who their audiences are.