News Habits & Media

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.

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 […]