Media & Society

64% of registered voters received recorded telephone messages in the final stages of the 2006 mid-term election.

What difference has Tony Snow made since becoming President George W. Bush’s press secretary? The President has been more accessible, for one thing. Tony Snow, it turns out, also talks more than his predecessor, Scott McClellan. A PEJ analysis suggests that in his regular give-and-take with the White House journalists, White House Q&A sessions are wordier and longer with the former TV and radio talk host at the helm.

How did the news media fare on Nov. 7? A PEJ study of 32 different media outlets on Election Day offers “five lessons” about the coverage of major breaking- news events in the multi-media era, and a “sector-by-sector” breakdown. While some outlets struggled to find their role, those that combined both speed and interactivity seemed the most useful destinations.

How did newspapers play the Nov 7 election on their front page? Did they see an ideological realignment in the country, or some deeper shift? A review of the day-after headlines in 230 newspapers across the country reveals that it was nothing quite so dramatic and many tread closer to Sergeant Joe Friday’s “Just the Facts, Ma’am.”

There was no shortage once again on cable and elsewhere in which pundits were asked how the midterm election would come out, something that of course by its nature was unknowable in advance. The general consensus among political prognosticators was that Nov. 7 was going to bring Democratic gains in Congress. Among a group of the most widely quoted election oracles, no one hit exactly what the final House tally appears likely to come out, but one prognosticator got very close.

As we've seen during this election season, participating online can also motivate users to participate offline.

The final tally from the mid-term election is in—you know the poll in which people actually vote—and the media polls can now be graded. With each election, there are more media outlets, and more polls. Usually, the polls begin to converge as election day nears. This year, the polls varied widely. How did they stack up against the actual vote?

As 11 p.m. neared on November 7 and the networks were about to sign off, NBC projected the Democrats would take control of the House though the results of many races were still out. It soon had company. In the next 21 minutes, all the networks and cable channels made their calls as well on what was still a fairly fluid map. This was the most the networks would do on a difficult night.

Political fund-raising, campaigning, blogging and YouTubing are all on the rise, but they're still a small part of the election scene.

Is the internet the lever for direct democracy? Or is it a wedge for political polarization? An assessment of the first 10 years of online politics.