News Media Trends

For all the "I-Team" graphics and driving music, enterprise reporting -- the serious, proactive journalism that local TV so heavily promotes -- is dropping precipitously.

Introduction and Summary American voters are hard to reach and hard to move. They rely on a kaleidoscope of media outlets, old and new, to follow news about the presidential campaign — virtually all of which are given a mixed review for political objectivity. And most voters say that political endorsements by celebrities, local newspapers, […]

The news media offered the American public a fine education in campaign tactics but told them little about matters that actually will affect them as citizens in the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.

Introduction and Summary With the start of the new year, the presidential campaign has begun in earnest for many Americans. More people are paying attention now than in the fall, and the back and forth between candidates has started to change voter perceptions. In particular, Al Gore has begun to redefine himself and challenger Bill […]

Introduction and Summary The murderous rampage by a pair of high school students in Littleton, Colo. attracted by far the most public interest of any news story of 1999. The widespread attention focused on the April shootings at Columbine High made it the third most closely watched story of the 1990s, according to the Pew […]

Introduction and Summary The rhetoric and events of the presidential campaign so far are having little impact on the attitudes of voters nationwide. Voter preferences are being shaped more by general impressions of the candidates than by what they are saying or by what is happening to them along the campaign trail. While many Americans […]

Introduction and Summary The U.S. Senate’s rejection of the underground nuclear test ban treaty has gone unnoticed by half of the public, and only one-in-ten Americans say they have heard a lot about why some in the Senate backed the treaty, while others opposed it. Just about half of respondents (49%) polled in a Pew […]

Introduction and Summary Americans are showing signs of disaffection with a presidential campaign that is just beginning. The public thinks the press and large campaign contributors are having too much influence on who gets nominated, and a 60% majority thinks voters themselves have too little say. The latest Pew Research Center survey, conducted on the […]

Introduction and Summary News of the disappearance and death of John F. Kennedy Jr. attracted a large news audience last week, but most Americans think that news organizations over-covered the story. More than eight-in-ten paid attention to news of the tragedy, and as many as 54% paid very close attention. It ranks as one of […]

Introduction and Summary American reaction to the end of the air war in Kosovo is mixed. While public support for intervention rebounded in the closing days of the conflict, there is little indication of public exaltation at its end. Two-thirds of the public (68%) now says the United States and NATO did the right thing […]