News Media Trends

After a year of passionate debate, health-care reform dominated the news agenda  last week leading up to a key vote by the House of Representatives, with the media focused on head counts, horse trading and the political calculus for legislators. No other story came close, but the economy once again finished as runner up.

Last week the dominant subject among bloggers was a global poll that illustrated strong sentiment for treating cyberspace as a kind of universal public utility. On Twitter, technology was once again the focus. And a senior citizen disc jockey was the week’s YouTube favorite.

Summary of Findings As President Obama and Democratic leaders mounted what was characterized as the final push to pass health care reform legislation last week, the public followed the health care debate more closely than any other major story (33% say they followed this story most closely). The debate also topped media coverage. The percentage […]

For the third straight week, the Obama Administration’s renewed efforts to pass a health care bill topped the news agenda while the U.S. economy followed in the No. 2 slot. Ex-Congressman Eric Massa’s weird cable TV tour also generated attention. And troubled Toyota found itself in the news again, albeit this time with somewhat more  sympathetic coverage.

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.

Declines in news audience, revenue, reporting – and a grim picture for economic models for online news. From PEJ's annual State of the News Media report.

For the second time in a month, the issue of gay rights drew intense interest from the blogosphere. The Chilean earthquake finished a close second while news about Google was the lead topic on Twitter. And on YouTube, four of the five top videos were about an animal trainer drowned by a killer whale at SeaWorld in Orlando.

At a conference at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010, Pew Research Center analysts and outside experts discussed research findings about the Millennial generation, the American teens and twenty-somethings now making the passage into adulthood. In this second of three sessions experts on media and technology examine how Millennials are seeking, sharing and creating information.

Summary of Findings As Americans continue to track the debate over health care reform closely, a growing minority – now 39% – says they think health care legislation will pass this year. Just before the Feb. 25 bipartisan summit at the White House to discuss the stymied legislation, 27% said they thought a bill would […]