Recent Publications

Health Care and Fort Hood Stir Passions
19 Nov 09The tone and tenor of the online conversation in many ways mirrored that of talk radio and cable television last week.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

What the Public Hears About Health Care
19 Nov 09Debate over the public option has been more visible than any other specific element of reform. While few have heard how reform would be paid for, many more have heard about its cost.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Abortion Plays Small Role in Health Reform Opposition
Though Most Oppose Public Funding
19 Nov 09While most Americans oppose government funding of abortion, concern about abortion funding plays only a small role in driving opposition to the health care reform legislation. If anything, opposition to reform has declined, with currently 42% in favor and 39% opposed to the health care proposals in Congress.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Europeans and Americans Share Concerns About Iran’s Nuclear Program
Russians Less Worried
18 Nov 09As international pressure mounts on Iran to halt its nuclear program, Americans and Europeans generally express serious concerns about the potential threat from a nuclear-armed Iran. These fears are somewhat muted in Russia
Pew Global Attitudes Project

How the Economy May Sway 2010 Governors' Races
18 Nov 09The tax hikes that so many states levied to plug holes in their recession-ravaged budgets this year could endanger some incumbent governors' careers in 2010 when 37 gubernatorial contests are at stake.
Special to the Pew Research Center

Modest Rise In Concern About Islamic Extremism
18 Nov 09Just more than half (52%) of Americans say they are very concerned about the possible rise of Islamic extremism in the U.S., up from 46% in April 2007.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Shooter's Past Creates More News
17 Nov 09Unlike previous violent crimes that dominated media attention, the coverage and debate over the shooting at Fort Hood did not dissipate in its second week.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Faith-Based Programs Still Popular
Democrats Now More Supportive Than Republicans
16 Nov 09Faith-based initiatives remain popular eight years after President Bush unveiled his plan, but church-state concerns remain and not all religions garner high support for receiving funds. Also, 9% of Americans say they recently have turned to religious groups to help make ends meet.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Teens and Distracted Driving
Texting, Talking and Other Uses of the Cell Phone Behind the Wheel
16 Nov 09A new study finds that 43% of older American teens have talked on their cell phones and a quarter have sent text messages while driving; nearly half of all teenagers have been in a car whose driver was texting.
Pew Internet & American Life Project

Fort Hood: The Online Conversation
12 Nov 09The shooting highlighted the emerging role of social media -- particularly Twitter -- in producing instantaneous accounts of breaking news events.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Obama Popular in Japan, China and South Korea
But Only Modest Improvements in U.S. Image
12 Nov 09As President Obama embarks on his first trip to Asia he will be greeted by publics who are confident in his judgment regarding world affairs and who generally agree with his international policies.
Pew Global Attitudes Project

Battle of the Budget Bulge
Are Americans Ready to Trim Their Government Waistline?
12 Nov 09Americans are famous both for being weight conscious, and at the same time unable to come to terms successfully with their bloated waistlines. The same paradox has applied to how the public looks at budget deficits for a very long time.
Pew Research Center

Americans and Western Europeans Agree on Afghanistan-Pakistan Extremist Threat
Consensus Despite Divisions on Afghan War
11 Nov 09While both Americans and Western Europeans generally believe the "Af-Pak" region potentially poses significant threats to national security, they do not share a common view about the deployment of military forces in Afghanistan.
Pew Global Attitudes Project

Shootings Seize Public's Attention
Americans Continue to Say Health Care Reform Will Pass
11 Nov 09Public attention to the Fort Hood shootings is on par with the tragedy in Virginia Tech. Despite media coverage, election results don't generate much interest.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

A Year Out, Widespread Anti-Incumbent Sentiment
Obama's Afghanistan Rating Declines
11 Nov 09The mood of America is glum. Most are dissatisfied with the state of the nation, economic conditions, personal finances and an increasing number say the war in Afghanistan is not going well. Still, a majority continues to approve of Obama's job as president.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Shooting Shakes Up Media Stories
10 Nov 09The Fort Hood attack was primarily a television story, with some cable news shows quickly turning the shootings into a kind of wedge issue.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Religious Landscape Survey Data Release
9 Nov 09Data files from the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, including interviews with a representative sample of more than 35,000 U.S. adults, are now available to the public for further study and analysis.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

The Paradoxical Relationship of Religion and Science
6 Nov 09While most embrace science and its benefits, strong religious convictions can affect some Americans' willingness to accept certain theories and discoveries. A new report examines the history of science and religion, the debates about them and how the two have been both adversaries and allies.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Bloggers Express Outrage Over Assault
5 Nov 09Many commentators put as much blamed the bystanders to the crime, and American society and culture, as those who actively participated.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Swine Flu Interest Outpaces Coverage
68% Hearing "Mostly Bad News" about Jobs
5 Nov 09The public's impression of economic news remains mixed at best, with 68% hearing "mostly bad news" about jobs.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Public Divided Over Afghan Troop Requests, But Still Sees Rationale for War
5 Nov 09As Obama weighs difficult choices in Afghanistan, the public also appears to be finding it difficult to judge the merits of different options for expanding, maintaining or contracting the U.S. effort on that front.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Social Isolation and New Technology
How the Internet and Mobile Phones Impact Americans' Social Networks
4 Nov 09A new study challenges previous research and commonplace fears about the harmful social impact of internet and cell phone use.
Pew Internet & American Life Project

Not Much New News
3 Nov 09For the fourth week in a row, health care, Afghanistan and the economic crisis accounted for roughly 40% of the newshole.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

End of Communism Cheered But Now With More Reservations
Two Decades After the Wall's Fall
2 Nov 09Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, publics of former Iron Curtain countries generally look back approvingly at the collapse of communism. However, enthusiasm about these changes has dimmed in most of the countries surveyed, and many say that most people were better off under communism.
Pew Global Attitudes Project

Partisanship and Cable News Audiences
30 Oct 09In recent years, Republican viewers have migrated increasingly to Fox News but Democrats comprise a larger share of the Fox News audience than Republicans do of CNN's audience.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

How the Public Judges News Network Ideology
Swine Flu Tops Weekly News Interest
29 Oct 09The perception of Fox News as mostly conservative is shared across news audiences, but Fox News viewers are more likely to see the other cable and network stations as mostly liberal.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Float On: Balloon Boy Still King Online
Global Warming Skeptics Find Big Audience on Blogs
29 Oct 09Anger over the drama surrounding Falcon Heene lived on in the blogs. Meanwhile, those on Twitter celebrated the five billionth tweet.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

The “Zeal of the Convert”: Is It the Real Deal?
29 Oct 09People who have switched religions consistently exhibit higher levels of religious commitment than those who still belong to their childhood faith, but the differences are relatively modest.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

College Enrollment Hits All-Time High, Fueled by Community College Surge
29 Oct 09Driven by a recession-era surge in enrollments at community college, the number of Americans ages 18 to 24 attending college hits a new high, while the high school dropout rate falls to a record low.
Social & Demographic Trends

Searching For Clues in the Global Warming Puzzle
27 Oct 09Why do fewer Americans believe the earth is warming? A range of possibilities, including a sour economy and, perhaps, a cooler than normal summer in parts of the U.S., may provide an explanation.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Bonus Coverage
White House vs. Fox is a Top Story
27 Oct 09Anger over Wall Street compensation brought the economy back onto the media's radar. Also, Obama versus Fox News made news on all outlets.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Social Media Float in Thin Air
Global Warming and Balloon Boy Take Up Online Talk
22 Oct 09While blogs filled with global warming skepticism, the rest of social media tweeted about Balloon Boy.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Public Finds Afghanistan News Unchanging, Hard to Follow
Growing Number Expects Health Care Bill to Pass
22 Oct 09As interest in the war remains modest, most Americans are unable to correctly estimate the number of U.S. fatalities in Afghanistan. Also, a majority now expects health care reform to pass.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming
Modest Support for “Cap and Trade” Policy
22 Oct 09There has been a sharp decline in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. Still, there is more support than opposition for cap and trade policy.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

RT: More Americans Tweeting
19% of Internet Users on Twitter or Another Service
21 Oct 09One-in-five online Americans are now on Twitter. Those on social networking websites, mobile internet users and young adults have been most responsible for the proliferation of tweets.
Pew Internet & American Life Project

Balloon Boy Takes Media for a Ride
Snowe Day Puts Health Care News Atop Media Agenda
20 Oct 09While votes and arguments about health care lead the media agenda for the full week, the story of an empty balloon was the No. 1 topic from Thursday on.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Email, Nobel and Dave
15 Oct 09News of an email scam that compromised thousands of passwords animated the blogosphere until late in the week, when the focus shifted abruptly to Barack Obama’s surprising Nobel Peace Prize. On YouTube, a Letterman mea culpa drew the most hits.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Updated Demographic Profiles of U.S. Hispanics by Country of Origin
15 Oct 09Five demographic profiles of Hispanic populations in the U.S. by country of origin -- Guatemalan, Colombian, Honduran, Ecuadorian and Peruvian -- have been added to the profiles of the five largest Hispanic populations -- Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, and Dominican -- posted earlier in the year by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Pew Hispanic Center

Swine Flu News Gets a Shot in the Arm
Fewer than Half Would Get Vaccine
15 Oct 09Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the media are overstating the danger of the swine flu and that they would not get vaccinated.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

The States of Marriage and Divorce
Lots of Ex’s Live in Texas
15 Oct 09Marriage, divorce and remarriage rates vary significantly among states as do average education and income levels. Analysis of new Census data reveals some interesting patterns.
Social & Demographic Trends

But What Do the Polls Show?
How public opinion surveys came to play a major role in policymaking and politics
14 Oct 09Perhaps the best way to think about public opinion and its relationship to politics and policymaking is that the American public is typically short on facts, but often long on judgment.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

What Does the Public Know?
Well-Known: Public Option, Sotomayor
Little-Known: Cap & Trade, Baucus
14 Oct 09There is a lot to keep up with in the news right now. Many Americans know key facts about health care and the economy, but questions about Afghanistan and environmental legislation in Congress stump the public.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Afghanistan No Longer a Forgotten War
Coverage Focused on Internal Debate Over Troops Levels
14 Oct 09After years of being ignored by the media -- the war accounted for only 1% of the newshole in 2008 -- Afghanistan has emerged atop the news agenda.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Obama's Nobel Prize
9 Oct 09News that President Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is another sign of his international appeal, as his election effectively turned around America's negative image in many countries.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Global Attitudes Project

Most Still Oppose Gay Marriage, but Support for Civil Unions Continues to Rise
9 Oct 09A 57% majority of Americans support civil unions, continuing a long-term trend of increasing support, but a majority still opposes same-sex marriage. The issue continues to sharply divide religious and political groups.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Celebrity Jeopardy: Blogs Talk Polanski
8 Oct 09The Roman Polanski saga generated three times the news links as did the second-largest story in the blogosphere.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Mother Nature Makes News
8 Oct 09A trio of tragedies -- a typhoon, a tsunami and an earthquake -- combined to make Sept. 28-Oct. 4 the second-biggest week of natural disaster coverage in 2009, confirming again the tendency of network newscasts to devote significant coverage to such disasters. An interactive feature charts media coverage of these and other disasters of recent years.
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Mixed Views of Economic Policies and Health Care Reform Persist
8 Oct 09Most Americans remain optimistic that Barack Obama’s policies will help the economy, but see no clear signs of recovery yet; many key provisions of health care reform remain popular but support for the overall package has slipped.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Public Renews Rx for Health Care News
Debate Still Interesting and Important, but also Hard to Follow
8 Oct 09Health care has been the public's top story for weeks, and few say it has received too much media coverage. But a large majority still finds the topic hard to understand.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Mapping the Global Muslim Population
A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population
8 Oct 09A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in the world today, representing 23% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion. A series of interactive maps show the size and distribution of the worldwide Muslim population.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life