News Habits & Media

Report Summary In a year that began and ended with American troops in the field, international news dominated the consciousness of Americans in 1990. In nine months of the last year, international news stories were the most closely followed news stories of the month, and throughout the entire period the public regarded international events as […]

Report Summary American voters gave the press a C+ grade for its coverage of the 1990 campaign, but that is a substantial improvement over the D+ grade the press received for its coverage of the 1988 presidential campaign. The press received better ratings than the parties and the campaign professionals for Election ’90. In 1988, […]

Report Summary Interest in news about the economy and the election campaigns increased markedly in the past month, but the crisis in the Gulf continued to be the story most closely followed by the American public. For the fourth consecutive month, approximately two-thirds of Times Mirror’s nationwide sample (62%) reported that it was following the […]

Report Summary Americans remain as attentive as they were a month ago to events in the Persian Gulf. Sixty-three percent of the public are following news about the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the deployment of U.S. forces to the Persian Gulf very closely. Our August survey showed an only marginally higher level of interest […]

Report Summary In a nation bombarded by a steady stream of new diets, health conscious cookbooks, physical fitness, low-fat foods and cholesterol tests, many Americans still say they are overweight and only a small number rate their physical condition and health as excellent. Fighting the battle of the bulge as well as the urge to […]

Report Summary In the days when LBJ was President, the phrase “generation gap” summed up the contrasting political and social values of young Americans and their elders. Today, a new but different generation gap exists. A major comparative examination of what young people know, what they pay attention to, and what media they use reveals […]

Report Summary Thirty-eight percent of the American public followed the Bush-Gorbachev summit “very closely” according to a new Times Mirror News Interest Index released today. While interest in the Washington summit was almost twice as great as public interest in last December’s meeting of the two world leaders off the coast of Malta (21%), the […]

Report Summary News about the release of American hostages in the Middle East has attracted more public attention than any other single story in 1990 so far. Close to half the public (46%) report that they have paid very close attention to stories about the release of Robert Polhill and Frank Reed. This is the […]

Report Summary Events overseas are overshadowing the importance of domestic news to the public. Americans are ten times more likely to cite an international news story (40%) than a domestic one (4%) as the most important event of the month. This is the fifth month in a row that Americans have named overseas stories more […]

Report Summary In a month in which no single news story dominated public attention, Americans registered a strong protest about the amount of news coverage devoted to the marital breakup of Donald and Ivana Trump. A record 55% said there was too much news about the Trumps. This is by far the largest “over covered” […]