News Media Trends

Never before has so much information been available to so many people. But what role will media play in its dissemination? Can legacy media adapt so that legacy doesn't come to mean extinct? A panel of experts discuss PEJ's recently released "State of the News Media" report.

Amid good news on jobs, storms in the Northeast and the arrest of a radical Christian militia, the news agenda was more unusually diverse last week with eight different stories gaining substantial attention.

A new nationwide survey of Latinos finds that foreign-born Latinos are more positive and knowledgeable about the 2010 Census than are native-born Latinos.

The debate over the passage of health care reform reached unprecedented levels on blogs and Twitter last week, and the debate focused on both the value of the bill and the confrontations that surrounded its passing.

Summary of Findings The long-running debate over health care reform continued to dominate public attention and media coverage last week as the final skirmishes played out on Capitol Hill and President Obama set out to promote the newly-enacted law. Two-thirds of Americans (66%) say they followed the health care debate more closely than any other […]

Health care reform received its highest level of media coverage last week than at any time since the legislative battle began. That made it the 18th biggest story in any week since PEJ began its real time monitoring of the national media. And most of that coverage focused on the political impact of the law.

As the health care bill neared passage in the House last week, it was by far the most popular topic on blogs, stirring a passionate and sometimes angry debate. On Twitter, a number of technology-focused stories led the way. And on YouTube, Jesse Ventura’s view on conspiracy theories was among the most popular videos.

Summary of Findings Americans closely tracked the final stages of the long-running debate over health care reform legislation last week as the story dominated media coverage. More than half (53%) of the public says the debate was the story they followed most closely, while the story was the focus of 37% of news coverage. Half […]

Senior research staff answer questions from readers relating to all the areas covered by our seven projects, ranging from polling techniques and findings, to media, technology, religious, demographic and global attitudes trends.