News Media Trends

Summary of Findings As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office and announces choices for key cabinet posts, a majority of Americans (56%) says news stories about the incoming administration are mostly positive. Very few (3%) say what they are hearing or reading about the new Obama administration is mostly negative, while four-in-ten (38%) say […]

With desperate automakers asking Congress for $34 billion, Barack Obama unveiling key Cabinet members, and the U.S. scrambling to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, the three top storylines in the news intertwined last week.

Barack Obama made headlines with some major appointments last week. But the bigger story was the deepening crises the new administration will face—a cratering economy domestically and a set of global challenges highlighted by the Mumbai terror attack.

Summary of Findings In addition to following the major economic headlines last week, the public tuned into news about the Obama transition. Fully 49% followed news about plans for the new Obama administration very closely and one-in-four said this was the single news story they followed more closely than any other, making it the second […]

Although no other media stories came close to rivaling the economy’s troubles and the emerging face of the incoming administration, one other story drew sensational coverage: piracy on the high seas.

The future of the automobile industry became a major component of the country’s ongoing economic problems last week, and speculation about Obama’s cabinet appointments reached a new level.

At a time when health care is a major public policy issue, how have the U.S. media covered the complex subject of health? A new report from PEJ and the Kaiser Family Foundation examines those questions.

Summary of Findings With the presidential election behind them, Americans have turned their attention back to the nation’s economy. The economy was by far the public’s top news story last week. Fully 56% of the public followed news about the economy very closely last week, and as many as 43% listed this as the single […]

What was the big religion story of the general election? A new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in conjunction with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life examines how the media covered religious matters.