Politics & Media

Overview A week after the election, voters are feeling good about themselves, the presidential campaign and Barack Obama. Looking ahead, they have high expectations for the Obama administration, with two-thirds predicting that he will have a successful first term. The quadrennial post-election survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds […]

When the campaign was finally over, the media almost immediately viewed Barack Obama's victory as a transformational event, and a subject that had been in some ways taboo moved front and center - race.

The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, will host a discussion of politics and the internet on Wednesday, November 19.

Summary of Findings As the long presidential campaign wound down last week, the public remained highly engaged. Fully 60% of registered voters said they were following campaign news very closely, while 28% said they were following fairly closely. That is the highest level of voter interest just before a presidential election since the Pew Research […]

TV continues to dominate the media landscape, but the internet now rivals newspapers as a main source for campaign news.

Summary of Findings Many more Americans are turning to the internet for campaign news this year as the web becomes a key source of election news. Television remains the dominant source, but the percent who say they get most of their campaign news from the internet has tripled since October 2004 (from 10% then to […]

With fewer than two weeks left before election day, how has the press covered the race for president? How has the tone of McCain’s coverage compared with Obama’s, or Palin’s. A new PEJ study from the conventions through the last debate offers answers.

From Jefferson to Palin, politicians of the left and right have blamed the media for public discontent with their policies, politics or personal behavior.

Political pundits, seeing no knockout punch, scored a tie. But viewers awarded the win to Obama.

Online activists and concerned citizens are using the internet to learn about the financial crisis, share their views on the proposed bailout, and organize their friends.