Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Public Knowledge

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    Test Your News IQ

    Take our latest quiz about prominent people and major events in the news. Then see how you did in comparison with 1,000 randomly sampled adults.

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    Well Known: Twitter; Little Known: John Roberts

    Overview An overwhelming proportion of Americans are familiar with Twitter, the online information-sharing network. Perhaps more surprisingly, a large majority also knows that children who are born to illegal immigrants in the United States are automatically U.S. citizens. Yet the public continues to struggle in identifying political figures, foreign leaders and even knowing facts about […]

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    Senate Legislative Process A Mystery To Many

    Overview The public has consistently expressed strong interest in the health care debate, but relatively few Americans can correctly answer two key questions related to the Senate’s consideration of health care legislation. In the latest installment of the Pew Research Center’s News IQ Quiz, just 32% know that the Senate passed its version of the […]

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    About the Survey

    Results for this report are based on telephone interviews among a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults, 18 years of age or older, conducted Dec. 4-7, 2008 under the direction of ORC (Opinion Research Corporation). For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus […]

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    Hillary’s New Job Better Known Than Dow Jones Average

    While just about everyone knows Obama’s new secretary of state, fewer than half were generally aware of where the Dow is trading these days. A new Pew News IQ survey provides an updated look at the public’s knowledge of political and world affairs. Test your own knowledge of current affairs against that of the broader public before you read the report.

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    Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional Sources

    Overview For more than a decade, the audiences for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news online has surged. However, today it is not a choice between traditional sources and the internet for the core elements of today’s news audiences. A sizable minority of Americans find themselves at […]

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