News Habits & Media

Congress voted on a Detroit bailout, the media focused on fallout from the economic meltdown, and Barack Obama rolled out a key appointment. But a political scandal bleepin’ swamped ‘em all.

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.

After a presidential race in which the internet played a huge role in empowering ordinary citizens to participate in the political process, change.gov offers a fascinating look into how the new administration is attempting to replicate this dynami...

For a host of reasons, the new administration needs to develop a national broadband strategy but research suggests that users must be central actors in its design.

There is no shortage of suggestions to the incoming Obama administration about what to do about communications policy in the United States. The body of research from the Pew Internet Project, dating to 2000, indicates that online Americans might have...

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.