Media Industry

Q. What was the most interesting thing you discovered in compiling this report? LR: The material I sent you is part of a much larger analysis of the State of the News Media that was done by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). There are a tremendous number of new insights […]

Excerpts from material contributed by the Pew Internet Project to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism "State of the News Media" report.

An overwhelming majority of Americans get their news from multiple news platforms. Which media sectors do people in the U.S rely on most? How has the internet and mobile technology changed the way people consume news? A joint PEJ-Pew Internet survey examines how internet and cell phone users have transformed news into a social experience.

Journalists Ron Nixon of the New York Times and Paul Overberg of USA Today presented a workshop for journalists on how to cover the 2010 Census at the Pew Research Center Jan. 21.

Summary of Findings The troubled economy and efforts to revamp the nation’s health care system dominated the public’s news interest in 2009. From the year’s start, Americans kept a close watch on the unfolding economic crisis, as well as Barack Obama’s efforts to grapple with the crisis while trying to make good on campaign promises. […]

A study of more than 34,000 news stories that appeared in major media outlets finds that most of what the public learns about Hispanics comes not through focused coverage of the life and times of this population group but through event-driven news stories in which Hispanics are one of many elements.

In recent years, Republican viewers have migrated increasingly to Fox News but Democrats comprise a larger share of the Fox News audience than Republicans do of CNN's audience.

Summary of Findings The Fox News Channel is viewed by Americans in more ideological terms than other television news networks. And while the public is evenly divided in its view of hosts of cable news programs having strong political opinions, more Fox News viewers see this as a good thing than as a bad thing. […]

The percentage of Americans saying that press criticism of political leaders keeps them honest is nearly as high now as it was in the 1980s, when views of the media were far less negative than they are today.

Newspapers are still the largest originating, gathering source of real news; the crisis they face is not loss of audience but loss of revenue.