News Content Analysis

A discussion that revolved around the critics of Barack Obama and his policies dominated the blogosphere last week—with the Tea Party protests and Jimmy Carter’s remarks about race as the main catalyst. On YouTube, an exhibition of public rudeness was the most viewed video.

Summary of Findings The number of Americans who say they are hearing too much about President Obama has not increased since mid-summer, despite the president’s high media visibility. Still, 37% say they are hearing too much about Obama. Since Labor Day, Obama has addressed a joint session of Congress about health care legislation, spoken to […]

The debate over health care took a new turn last week, as politicians and the media reacted to a new Senate proposal. And one outgrowth of the polarizing battle was that race played its biggest role in the media narrative since Obama became president.

The discovery of a giant rat species in Papua New Guinea and the shout of a Congressman during Obama’s health care speech led the blogs last week. Twitter, on the other hand, proved to be ever more self-absorbed. And on YouTube, it was still health care, albeit in a more civil tone.

Summary of Findings With public and media attention focused on President Obama’s Sept. 9 health care address to a joint session of Congress, Americans overwhelmingly cited the health care debate as their top story of the week. And when asked to evaluate the tone of the health care debate, a majority says it has been […]

Due largely to the President’s prime time address to Congress, coverage of the health care reform issue exploded last week. And an Obama speech to school children that wasn’t so controversial after all also made the top story list.

A dovish article by a conservative columnist triggered a heated blogger’s debate over Afghanistan last week while the major topics on Twitter were all related to technology. On YouTube, health care protests continue to make for popular viewing, though not quite as popular as a dancing school teacher.

Summary of Findings Interest in the health care reform debate has remained extremely high throughout the summer and more than nine-in-ten Americans say the issue is important to them. Still, despite the public focus on health care news, two thirds continue to say the issue is hard to understand. With Congress returning from its August […]

Thanks to speculation about Barack Obama’s crucial September 9 speech, the health care debate was, once again, the week’s leading story.  But press attention more generally was split among a series of significant events, both at home and abroad.

Summary of Findings In a busy late summer news stretch, Americans continued to track news about the health care debate more closely than other major stories last week. The economy, the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and the strange case of a California woman rescued from long-time captors also vied for the public’s attention. […]