Analysis: Our Studies, Commentaries and Backgrounders
This section, Analysis, is the complete archive of all the research studies, commentaries, background reports, articles, or speeches PEJ has published. They are listed below in chronological order, but our archive is also searchable. Use the menus on the left to filter the contents and find exactly what you want.
| | November 2, 2012 | | Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have both received more negative than positive coverage from the news media in the eight weeks since the conventions, but Obama has had an edge overall, a new PEJ study finds. The report also examines how the candidates fared in different media outlets, the tone of the conversation on social media and offers comparisons to 2008 campaign coverage. |
| | October 25, 2012 | | As the presidential election enters the last lap, where are people going to learn about the campaign and the candidates? A new PEJ survey finds an increasingly diverse ecosystem for political news. |
| | October 5, 2012 | | The reaction to the first presidential debate was better for Barack Obama in social media than in the traditional press, where the consensus was that Mitt Romney had won handily. But the sentiment differed by social media platform and generally criticism was more plentiful than praise. |
| | October 1, 2012 | | The percent of Americans with mobile access to the internet has jumped dramatically in the last year—a trend that has major implications for the news industry. A new survey of news use on mobile devices by PEJ in collaboration with The Economist Group examines how tablets and smartphones have changed news consumption habits and what that might mean for the future of news. |
| | September 28, 2012 | | During what may prove a key period in the race for president, the candidates received very different treatment on Twitter, Facebook and blogs than in the mainstream media, a new PEJ study finds. The candidates each enjoyed a bounce in mainstream media treatment during their conventions. By contrast, social media showed little change, and the discourse was highly negative. |
| | September 26, 2012 | | Depending on the local news topic, urban residents are more likely to use mobile and online sources, while suburbanites are most heavily into social media and rural residents are more inclined to word of mouth sources. A joint PEJ-Pew Internet report offers more about how people get local news in specific communities. |
| | August 23, 2012 | | On the eve of the conventions, the portrayal in the news media of the character and records of the two presidential contenders in 2012 has been as negative as any campaign in recent times, and neither candidate has enjoyed any advantage over the other. |
| | August 15, 2012 | | On the eve of the conventions, Barack Obama holds a distinct advantage over Mitt Romney in the way his campaign is using digital technology to communicate directly with voters. The Obama campaign is posting almost four times as much content and is active on nearly twice as many platforms, according to a new study analyzing the content and volume of candidate communications on their websites and social media channels. |
| | August 9, 2012 | | What’s the job market like for 2011 mass communication and journalism graduates? According to a new survey from the University of Georgia, there was an uptick in the percentage of bachelor degree recipients who found jobs and, for the first time in years, a small increase in their salaries. But the overall picture is far from rosy.
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| | July 25, 2012 | | The conversation on Twitter about the Penn State scandal has shifted focus over the last month from the man convicted of sexual abuse to the school and then to the NCAA. But one constant in the conversation has not budged—views of Joe Paterno.
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