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.
  • Nielsen Starts Watching the Ad Watchers

    Nielsen Media Research, the gold standard in the TV ratings industry, has announced that it will release numbers in December that show how many people actually sit through commercials on TV. That new yardstick will affect how much advertisers will pay to air those ads and will very possibly alter the economics of the TV marketplace. And not everyone in the TV business is happy about this.

  • Not Much Good News in the New Circulation Numbers

    The new numbers for the newspaper industry are out, and they show another disheartening drop of nearly 3% in total average daily circulation. But the picture may be more complicated than the first impression. Not all papers are hurting, and many companies have trimmed questionable circulation. The industry also is boasting that, when online readers are included, overall readership is growing.

  • The Vanishing Embedded Reporter in Iraq

    After the media complained about lack of access to previous conflicts, hundreds of embedded journalists lived, traveled and reported right alongside US troops at the outset of the Iraq war. Now, three years later, there are barely two dozen embeds left.
  • Few Runs, Few Hits, Fewer Viewers

    Baseball's Fall Classic has not been a hit with TV viewers in recent years. In the last 20 years World Series ratings have fallen by more than 50% so that it now only averages one quarter of the audience of the Super Bowl. And through two games, the 2006 Series is the lowest-rated ever.
  • Will Congress Take Sides on Net Neutrality?

    It’s a complicated, technical issue, but one that could have a major impact on the flow of online information. While many internet service providers want content providers to foot more of the bill, supporters of net neutrality warn such a system could create an unfair internet hierarchy. It may be up to Washington to play referee.
  • A Harvard Panel Tackles the News Blues

    The media landscape has changed dramatically since Harvard’s Shorenstein Center was established 20 years ago. And when journalists and dignitaries assembled there on Oct. 13-14 to evaluate the current role of journalism in our democracy, there was good news and bad. The bad was that new technologies have created credibility concerns and economic problems for mainstream journalists. The good news may be the emergence of the citizen journalist.

  • All the President's Pressers

    President Bush's second term has brought a big increase in the number of solo press conferences. Bush had only had 17 in his first term but looks like he's on the way to doubling that number in this four-year stint. The president still lags behind previous White House residents, but the change suggests a different approach to the press.

  • Brave New World: Citizens and Cell Phones?

    A media conference featuring a futuristic video and a keynote address from a BBC official sketched out a scenario for news delivery that may be just around the corner. But will the proliferation of citizen journalists and wireless news platforms create its own set of financial and credibility problems for the journalism profession?
  • Papers Hope to Sell Print + Online Readers to Advertisers

    Sandwiched between a declining print industry and an online universe still building economic momentum, newspaper companies are looking at combined Internet and newsprint readership as a new way of measuring audience. A big unanswered question is whether advertisers will agree that this is a more accurate way to count their potential customers.
  • The American Journalist: Politics and Party Affiliation

    A new book surveying more than 1,000 journalists finds their politics have drifted a bit to the right since the 1990s, but they still remain more liberal than the general US population. With a majority of the public accusing news outlets of political bias, these numbers aren’t likely to silence that noisy debate.