The 2012 presidential campaign was a frustrating experience for many voters, who say the campaign was more negative than usual and had less discussion of issues than in most previous campaigns. Both Obama and Romney get mixed grades for the job they did reaching out to voters, as do campaign consultants, the press and pollsters. On most measures, voters’ views of campaign 2012 fall short of the election four years ago.

Similarly, voters do not have a particularly rosy outlook on national politics going forward. Fully 66% say that relations between Republicans and Democrats will either stay about the same (52%) or get worse (14%) over the next year. And while 56% of voters think Obama will be successful in his coming term, that is down from the 67% who thought his first term would be successful at this point four years ago.

While broad majorities of all voters want Barack Obama (72%) and the Republican leadership (67%) to work with the other side to get things done over the coming year, each party’s political base sends mixed signals. Only about half (46%) of Republicans want GOP leaders to work with Obama to get things done, while about as many (50%) say they should stand up to Obama, even if less gets done. The message to Obama from Democrats is only somewhat more conciliatory: 54% want the president to try to work with Republicans, but 42% do not.

Republicans and Republican leaners remain of the view that the GOP leaders should move in a more conservative direction, not a more moderate one, by a 57% to 35% margin. Democrats and Democratic leaners, meanwhile, continue to support more moderation from their political leaders: Nearly six-in-ten (57%) want Democratic leaders to move in a moderate direction, while 33% want them to move in a more liberal direction.

These are the principal findings of the Pew Research Center’s quadrennial post-election survey, conducted Nov 8-11, 2012 among 1,206 voters who were originally interviewed before the election. The poll finds that, despite expressing strong criticisms of the campaign, most voters say they were satisfied with the choice of presidential candidates and believe they learned enough about them over the course of the campaign to make an informed choice. The presidential debates, in particular, stand out as positive – about two-thirds (66%) say they were helpful in learning about the candidates.

Republican voters are about as likely as Democratic voters to say they learned enough about the candidates to make an informed choice and to have found the debates helpful.

Republicans also are less critical of their candidate, and their party, today than they were after John McCain’s loss in 2008. Fully 75% of Republican voters give Mitt Romney a grade of A or B for the way he conducted his campaign. In the post-election survey four years ago, 63% of Republican voters gave McCain an A or B. In that regard, more GOP voters say they were satisfied with their choice of candidates this year than after the 2008 election (57% now, 38% then).

Republicans also are more positive about the GOP’s performance in the campaign. Six-in-ten GOP voters (60%) give their party grades of A or B for the way it conducted the campaign; just 44% rated the party that positively after the election four years ago.

But Republicans give the voters much lower grades than in 2008 – just 29% give a grade of A or B, down from 47%. In fact, Republicans’ grades for the voters equal the lowest grades given by members of either party dating back to 1988. In 1996, after Bob Dole lost to Bill Clinton, just 30% of Republicans gave the voters positive grades.

The survey finds that internet has again grown as a source of campaign news. Nearly half (47%) of voters say the internet was a main source of campaign news over the course of the election, up from 36% four years ago. The internet now far surpasses newspapers (27%) as a main source of campaign news, though it still trails television (67%).

In this vein, virtually all voters (92%) who followed the returns on election night tracked them on television, and 34% followed the returns on the internet. Slightly more than a quarter of voters (27%) were “dual screeners,” using both television and the internet to get information. Among voters younger than 40, 39% of those who followed returns on election night kept track both by watching TV and following online.

Election night is also a social experience for some voters: 16% of those who followed election returns did so with friends, while 8% used social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to track the results. Obama supporters were more likely to watch returns with friends, and to use social networks to follow results, than were voters who supported Romney.
Aside from long lines, few voters report having had problems casting their ballots. Some 37% of the voters interviewed say they cast their ballot before Election Day, 19% in person and 17% by mail. Many early voters cite convenience as the main factor they cast their ballots early, but for those who went to early voting sites the lines were often just as long as for those who waited until Election Day.

While most say the voting process in their area was managed well and that they are very confident that their votes were accurately counted, confidence about the vote nationwide is down from 2008. About three-in-ten (31%) voters say they are very confident that the votes across the country were accurately counted this year, down from 43% four years ago. Just 21% of Romney voters say they are very confident in the accuracy of this year’s vote, down from 29% among McCain supporters four years ago. Skepticism is also up among Obama supporters, 42% are very confident that the nation’s votes were accurately counted, down from 56% after the 2008 election.

Republicans express increasingly positive opinions about the presidential campaign and are now about as likely as Democrats to view the campaign as interesting and informative. In early September, shortly after the party conventions, far more Democrats than Republicans said the campaign was interesting and informative.

The new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 18-21 among 1,005 adults, finds that 63% of the public says the campaign is interesting, while 28% say it is dull. Last month, 53% found the campaign interesting. From January through June, majorities said the campaign was dull, and no more than about four-in-ten found it interesting.

Over the past month, the increase in the percentage saying the campaign is interesting has come entirely among Republicans and independents. In the new survey, conducted before Monday’s debate, 73% of Republicans say the campaign is interesting, up 23 points since early September and by far the highest percentage of the year. More independents also view the campaign as interesting (56% today, 45% in September).

The percentage of Democrats who say the campaign is interesting, which jumped 19 points between June and September, is unchanged since then (66%).

Compared with a month ago, far more Republicans also view the campaign informative (69% now, 49% then,). And substantially fewer say the campaign is “too long” than did so in September (42% now, 62% then). In fact, the percentage of Republicans who say the campaign is too long is now about as low as it was in January (49%) at the start of the GOP primaries.

Democrats’ and independents’ views about whether the campaign is informative and too long are little changed since September. On both measures, opinions among Democrats turned much more positive between June and September. (For more, see “Democrats Now More Positive on Campaign 2012,” Sept. 12, 2012.)

The new survey also finds no substantial partisan differences in opinions about whether the presidential campaign is too negative: 59% of independents, 56% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats say the campaign is too negative. A month ago, far more Republicans (63%) than Democrats (42%) said the campaign was too negative.

There is broad agreement that the presidential campaign is important: 86% say it is important compared with just 13% who say it is unimportant. Democrats (91%) and Republicans (90%) are more likely than independents (81%) to view the campaign as important.

Comparisons to 2008

Overall, fewer Americans say the campaign is interesting than did so at a comparable point in the 2008 campaign (63% today, 71% in October 2008). But while the percentage saying the campaign is interesting has increased dramatically since earlier in the year, it peaked early in 2008 during the primaries (70% in February), fell in the spring, and then recovered in the fall.

Fewer Democrats (66%) say the campaign is interesting than did so in October 2008 (80%). By comparison, about the same percentage of Republicans finds the campaign is interesting as did four years ago (73% today, 70% then).

Overall opinions about other aspects of the campaign are only modestly changed from four years ago. But more Republicans say the campaign is informative than did so in October 2008 (69% now, 57% then), while fewer Republicans view the presidential campaign as too long (42% now, 63% then). Fewer Democrats (50%) see the campaign as too negative than did so in October 2008 (62%).

Interest in Campaign News

Public interest in news about the campaign is lower than it was in October 2008. Currently 48% say they are following news about the election very closely. That is the highest percentage this year, though not significantly different from the previous two weeks, (45% in Oct. 12-14 and Oct. 4-7).

At a comparable point in mid-October 2008 (Oct. 17-20), 61% said they were following campaign very closely – the highest percentage of the campaign. Interest fell to 44% the following week, before rebounding to 57% the weekend before the election.

The vast majority of Americans say they followed coverage of the first presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, including 56% who followed the debate live. Most of these real-time viewers watched on television, but 11% of live debate watchers were “dual screeners,” following coverage on a computer or mobile device at the same time as following television coverage. Another 3% say they followed the debate live exclusively online.

The post-debate survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 4-7 among 1,006 adults, finds younger Americans are especially likely to be “dual-screeners,” following the debate live on both television and a computer or mobile device.

Overall, 32% of those younger than 40 say they followed the debate live online, including 22% who followed it both on television and online, and 10% who followed exclusively on a computer or mobile device. Those 40-to-64 are less likely to have followed live online (11%); just 1% followed only online, while 10% followed online as well as on television. Very few Americans 65 and older followed the debate live online (2%) and none followed live coverage exclusively on a computer or mobile device.

Sharing Debate Reactions Online

While Twitter and Facebook provide an outlet for a range of debate reactions, only a small share of Americans are actively participating in these conversations. Only about a third of those who followed the debate in real time online – representing 5% of the overall debate audience– say they shared their own reactions to the debate online. This includes 8% of live debate watchers younger than 40 and 5% of those 40-to-65. No real-time debate watchers 65 and older reported sharing their reactions online while the debate was going.

Television Top Source for Debate Coverage

Overall, 83% of Americans followed any coverage of the first presidential debate either live or after the debate had already occurred. As with live coverage, television is the dominant source, outpacing other traditional sources, such as newspapers and radio, as well as online sources and social networking sites.

Seven-in-ten Americans (70%) followed debate coverage on television, more than twice the percentage that turned to any other single source. About as many say they followed any debate coverage in newspapers (32%) as online or on a mobile device, such as a cell phone or tablet computer (29%). In addition, 22% say they got debate coverage from social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. About the same percentage (24%) followed debate coverage on the radio.

Digital vs. Traditional Sources of Debate Coverage

About a third (36%) of Americans got any debate coverage online or from social networking sites; far more (78%) say they got coverage from traditional sources, including television, newspapers, or radio. Among those younger than 40, however, the gap is narrower: about half (51%) followed coverage online or on social networking sites, compared with 70% who followed coverage either on television, the radio, or in newspapers. About a third (35%) of those 40-to-64 say they followed debate coverage online or on social networks, compared with 81% who got any coverage through television, newspapers, or the radio. Just 15% of those 65 and older followed the debate digitally; 80% say they turned to traditional sources for debate coverage.

Mitt Romney’s statement that 47% of the public is dependent on government has registered strongly with voters. Fully two-thirds of voters (67%) correctly identify Romney as the candidate who made the comments. Among those aware that Romney made comments about the “47%”, more than half (55%) have a negative reaction while just 23% react positively.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Sept, 27-30 among 1,005 adults, including 828 registered voters, finds that large percentages of Republican (65%), Democratic (65%) and independent voters (72%) know that Romney described nearly half of the population as dependent on government and paying no taxes.

The reaction among those aware that Romney made the comments is clearly negative. Yet they also think that news organizations are giving too much coverage to Romney’s “47%” statement. Nearly half of voters (49%) who know that Romney made those remarks say news organizations are giving the story too much coverage, while just 13% say they are giving it too little coverage; 28% say the amount of coverage has been appropriate.

The survey also finds that, more generally, voters are not too impressed with the jobs both candidates done in attempting to win them over. Only about half of voters give Barack Obama grades of A or B in convincing them to vote for him. Even fewer voters give Romney grades of A or B for persuasiveness.

GOP Voters’ Mixed Views of Romney Comments

Overall, 55% of registered voters who identify Romney as the candidate who made the “47%” comments have a negative reaction to them, while fewer than half as many (23%) have a positive reaction . Nearly one-in-five (22%) react neutrally (19%) or have no opinion (3%).

Democrats overwhelmingly react negatively to Romney’s comments (88%). And 55% of independents who are aware of Romney’s comments say they have a negative reaction; just 18% view his comments positively.

GOP voters aware of Romney’s statement have mixed opinions: 54% react positively, while 29% have a neutral reaction or don’t know, and 17% react negatively.

Voters with lower family incomes who are aware of Romney’s statement have a highly negative reaction to them: 69% of those with family incomes below $30,000 express negative views of Romney’s 47% comments, compared with about half of those in higher income categories.

In terms of how the press has covered Romney’s comments, a sizable majority of Republican voters (74%) say the press has them given too much coverage. Nearly half of independent voters (48%) also say Romney’s remarks have gotten got too much coverage, while just 29% of Democrats agree.

Grading the Campaigns

Voters grade the Obama’s efforts at winning them over far less positively than they did four years ago. In October 2008, 65% of voters graded Obama at A or B for convincing them to vote for him, while 32% graded him at C, D or F. Today, just 46% of voters grade Obama at A or B, while about as many (50%) give him a grade of C or lower.

Obama’s grades today are about the same as John Kerry’s (46% A or B) and George W. Bush’s (42%) in October 2004. Obama also gets about the same grades as did Bill Clinton in 1996, during his reelection campaign.

In September 1996, 50% rated Clinton’s efforts to persuade voters at A or B, while 47% graded them at C or lower.

Romney’s current grades are in line with John McCain’s marks in 2008 and Bob Dole’s in 1996. Currently, 31% of voters give Romney’s campaign a grade of A or B. In October 2008, 34% gave McCain’s campaign a grade of A or B, while 29% gave Dole’s efforts positive grades in September 1996.

Currently, Democrats’ grades for the Obama campaign are more positive than GOP voters’ grades for the Romney’s. Nearly eight-in-ten Democratic voters (78%) give Obama a grade of A or B for convincing them to vote for him; 62% of Republican voters give Romney equivalent grades. Independent voters also give the Obama campaign higher marks (42% A or B) than the Romney campaign (26% A or B).

There is no public consensus when it comes to how the presidential candidates are being covered by the news media. Nearly half (46%) say the coverage of Romney has been fair, while among those who see a bias as many say the press has been too easy on the GOP nominee (20%) as too tough on him (21%). The same percentage (46%) says coverage of Obama has also been fair. However, nearly twice as many say press coverage of the president has been too easy (28%) than too tough (15%).

Four years ago, there was a larger disparity in impressions of how the press was covering the candidates. In October 2008 more thought the press was being too tough on McCain (23%) than too easy (15%). Nearly a third (31%) said the press was being too easy on Obama, while just 7% said it was being too tough. At that time, just 38% said coverage of Sarah Palin was fair; as many (38%) said coverage was too tough.

Republicans generally are more critical of the press than are Democrats. The new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted September 20 – 23, 2012 among 1005 adults, finds, 45% of Republicans think the press has been too tough on Mitt Romney – almost identical to the 44% who said this about coverage of McCain in October 2008. By comparison, 26% of Democrats think the press is too tough on Obama, though this has increased substantially from only 9% four years ago.

What stands out to Republicans even more is what they see as unfair treatment of Obama. Six-in-ten (60%) Republicans say the news coverage is too easy on Obama. Most Democrats say news organizations have been fair in their coverage of Mitt Romney, with only 29% saying they have been too easy on him.

In the wake of the party conventions, Democrats express increasingly positive views of the presidential campaign. And today, substantially more Democrats than Republicans view the campaign as interesting and informative.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Sept. 7-9 among 1,012 adults, finds that 66% of Democrats say the presidential campaign is interesting while just 27% say it is dull. Among Republicans 50% say it is interesting while nearly as many (45%) describe it as dull. The gap is about as wide in opinions about whether the presidential campaign is informative – 68% of Democrats say it is informative, compared with 49% of Republicans.

In September 2008, nearly identical percentages of Republicans (75%) and Democrats (74%) said the campaign was interesting. And similar majorities of both groups viewed the campaign as informative (62% of Republicans and 59% of Democrats).

Republicans also are more likely than Democrats to say the current campaign is too negative. More than six-in-ten Republicans (63%) say it is too negative; just 42% of Democrats express this view. In September 2008, 41% of Republicans and 45% of Democrats said the campaign was too negative.

Most Republicans (62%) say the presidential campaign is too long, compared with 43% of Democrats. In 2008, 63% of Republicans and 49% of Democrats said the campaign was too long.

Among the public as a whole, fewer people say the campaign is interesting than did so at about the same point in the 2008 race (53% now, 68% then). About as many say the campaign is informative as did so in September 2008. More people say the campaign is too negative than four years ago, while somewhat fewer say it is too long.

How Opinions Have Changed This Year

Over the course of the current campaign, views of the race have changed substantially. Far more people find the campaign interesting and informative than did so in June or March.

But virtually all of the increase in positive campaign evaluations has come among Democrats and independents. Republicans currently express about the same opinions about the campaign as they did in March, during the GOP primaries, with one exception: More Republicans now say the campaign is too negative than did so then.

Republicans are now more likely to say the campaign is interesting and informative than in June, after the primaries ended. Nonetheless, about the same number of Republicans say the campaign is interesting (50%) and informative (49%) as did so in March (52% and 47%, respectively).

Over the same period, Democrats’ views of the 2012 campaign have improved dramatically. About two-thirds of Democrats say the presidential campaign is interesting (66%) and informative (68%). In March, just 36% of Democrats called the campaign interesting and 44% called it informative.

Notably, an increasing percentage of independents also finds the campaign interesting. Currently, 45% of independents say it is interesting, up from 31% in March and 27% in June.

Most Republicans think the campaign is too negative (63%) and too long (62%). Far fewer Democrats say the campaign is too negative (42%) or too long (43%). In March, about as many Democrats (54%) as Republicans (51%) said the campaign was too negative and there was a more modest gap in the percentages calling the campaign too long (64% of Republicans, 53% of Democrats).

No Spike in Campaign Interest after Conventions

Following the Republican and Democratic conventions, there has been no increase in interest in news about the election. Overall, 31% say they have been following news about candidates for the 2012 presidential election very closely. Interest was about as high in the week before the Republican convention. In a survey conducted August 23-26, 27% said they were following news about the presidential election very closely.

Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to have been following election news. In the current survey, 40% of Democrats and 37% of Republicans say they followed news about candidates for the 2012 presidential election very closely; somewhat fewer independents (25%) say the same.

In 2008, when, like this year, the party conventions were held in consecutive weeks, interest in campaign news rose after the conventions. In 2004, when the conventions were about a month apart, there also was increased news interest after the pair of conventions. In 2000 and 1996, there was no bounce in interest following the party conventions.

Recent Weeks’ News

The economy was the public’s top story last week, outpacing interest in the election and news about events in Afghanistan. Overall, 36% say they followed news about the condition of the U.S. economy very closely compared with 31% who very closely followed election news and 18% who followed the current situation and events in Afghanistan.

A week prior, public interest was divided among the economy, Hurricane Isaac and the election. A third (33%) said the followed news about the economy very closely, 31% followed news about Hurricane Isaac very closely and 29% followed news about the candidates for the 2012 presidential election very closely.

The public continued to track news about the economy and the presidential election, while paying less attention to another important political story – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in a hard-fought recall election.

The latest weekly News Interest Index, conducted June 7-10 among 1,000 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, finds that 35% say they followed reports about U.S. economic conditions very closely while 30% tracked news about the presidential election very closely.

The public expressed less interest in news about the Wisconsin recall election (21% very closely), European economic problems (18%) and the CIA killing of an al Qaeda leader in a drone strike in Pakistan (16%).

The Wisconsin recall election attracted more interest among Republicans (31% very closely) than Democrats or independents (20% each).

Just 6% of Americans say they very closely followed news about recent conflicts between the Vatican and U.S. nuns. Fewer than one-in-five (14%) followed this story either very or fairly closely; 84% say they followed this news not too closely or not at all closely.

Even among Catholics, this story attracted little interest. In fact, nearly identical percentages of Catholics (16%), Protestants (14%) and the religiously unaffiliated (14%) paid very close attention to the conflicts between the Vatican and American nuns. White Catholics are somewhat more interested than are white Protestants (22% very closely vs. 13% very closely).

These findings are based on the most recent installment of the weekly News Interest Index, an ongoing project of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, building on the Center’s longstanding research into public attentiveness to major news stories.

Americans continued to follow news about the presidential campaign more closely than any other news last week, though they also closely followed news about the price of gasoline.

Nearly three-in-ten (28%) say news about the candidates for president was their top story, while 17% say they followed news about gas prices most closely. One-in-ten (10%) say they followed news about the U.S. economy more closely than any other story, according to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted May 24-27 among 1,012 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Looking at a separate measure, comparable numbers say they very closely followed news about the economy (33%), the election (32%) and gas prices (32%).

News about the presidential election topped coverage, accounting for 19% of the newshole, according to a separate analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). News about gas prices made up just 1% of coverage, while news about the economy overall accounted for 6%.

Federal estimates show that gas prices have dropped since late April in most regions of the country and Americans appear to have taken notice. More say the price has gone down than up over the past month (51% vs. 39%). That is not the case on the West Coast, where prices have increased – and most residents know that is the case. (See:  Public Sees Gas Prices Down a Little Across Much of Nation.)

News about gas prices consistently gets the public’s attention. In mid-March, 52% said they were very closely following news about the rising price of gas and oil.

Looking at other top stories, 7% say they followed news about Facebook’s public stock offering most closely, while 12% say they very closely followed news about the social network’s newly issued stock. That’s about the same as the 14% that said this one week earlier when the stock first started trading. News about Facebook accounted for 6% of coverage.

Just 5% say their top story the sentencing of a Rutgers University student who had used a webcam to spy on his gay roommate; 11% say they very closely followed news about the  sentencing of Dharun Ravi. This story made up 2% of coverage.

The presidential election in Egypt drew little interest, with 4% saying they followed this news very closely and 1% saying this was their top story. News about the election made up 4% of coverage. In early 2011, the public followed the initial protests against the Egyptian government and the resignation of Hosni Mubarak much more closely. In mid-February of last year, 39% said they were following this news very closely.

These findings are based on the most recent installment of the weekly News Interest Index, an ongoing project of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The index, building on the Center’s longstanding research into public attentiveness to major news stories, examines news interest as it relates to the news media’s coverage. The weekly survey is conducted in conjunction with The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index, which monitors the news reported by major newspaper, television, radio and online news outlets on an ongoing basis. In the most recent week, data relating to news coverage were collected May 21-27, and survey data measuring public interest in the top news stories of the week were collected May 24-27 from a nationally representative sample of 1,012 adults.

Americans focused most closely last week on news about the presidential election, as the race increasingly shifted from the Republican primary contest to the head-to-head fight between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Nearly three-in-ten (28%) say the campaign was their top story, while 16% say they most closely followed news about the economy, according to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted May 17-20 among 1,004 adult by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Election news topped coverage as well, accounting for 17% of the newshole, according to a separate analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). General news about the U.S. economy made up 7% of coverage, while related news specifically about the multi-billion dollar losses at banking giant J.P. Morgan Chase accounted for another 7%. In terms of news interest, 7% say they followed news about the troubles at J.P. Morgan most closely last week.

Assessing Coverage of the Candidates

On balance, the public views news coverage of both Obama and Romney as fair. However, more think that coverage of Obama has been too easy than say that about coverage of Romney.

About four-in-ten (41%) say recent news coverage of Obama has been fair, 28% say it has been too easy and 19% see it as too tough. Nearly half (47%) say recent coverage of Romney has been fair, while 21% say it has been too easy and 15% say too tough. These opinions are little changed from earlier in the campaign.

Republicans are far more critical of coverage of Obama than they are of coverage of Romney. Nearly half of Republican and Republican-leaning independents (47%) say the press has been too easy on Obama, while 33% say it has been fair. In contrast, 46% think coverage of Romney has been fair; 27% say coverage of the likely GOP nominee has been too tough, while 13% say it has been too easy.

Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, 49% say coverage of Obama has been fair; virtually the same percentage (48%) says coverage of Romney has been fair. More Democrats say press coverage of Obama is too tough than too easy (30% vs. 12%). By contrast, more say coverage of Romney has been too easy than too tough (26% vs. 7%).

The Week’s News

While the presidential election clearly topped the news index last week as the story Americans followed most closely, the percentages following election news very closely have changed little for much of 2012. The 31% that say they followed news about the candidates very closely is about the same as the 34% that said this one week earlier. Republicans (33%), Democrats (32%) and independents (30%) are about equally likely to say they followed news about the candidates very closely last week.

About a third (35%) say they very closely followed reports about the condition of the U.S. economy, while 21% say they very closely followed news about J.P. Morgan losing $2 billion or more in high risk trading. Another 15% say they very closely followed news about political and economic uncertainty in Greece. Comparable numbers say the J.P Morgan losses (7%) and the situation in Greece (6%) was their top story. According to PEJ, coverage of the U.S. economy and J.P. Morgan’s woes together accounted for 14% of the newshole, while the economic troubles in Europe accounted for another 5%.

About one-in-ten (8%) say their top story of the week was Facebook’s initial public stock offering; 14% say they followed this news very closely. With the start of trading last Friday, news about the stock offering accounted for 5% of coverage.

Though young people are about as likely as older ones to say they followed this news very closely, more say this was their top story of the week. For example, 13% of those 18-29 say this was the news they followed most closely, compared with 5% among those 50-64 and just 2% among those 65 and older.

Overall, 15% say they very closely followed news about census data that show the number of minority births in the U.S. topped the number of white births last year; 4% say this was the news they followed most closely. News about this demographic shift accounted for 2% of coverage.

These findings are based on the most recent installment of the weekly News Interest Index, an ongoing project of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The index, building on the Center’s longstanding research into public attentiveness to major news stories, examines news interest as it relates to the news media’s coverage. The weekly survey is conducted in conjunction with The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index, which monitors the news reported by major newspaper, television, radio and online news outlets on an ongoing basis. In the most recent week, data relating to news coverage were collected May 14-20, and survey data measuring public interest in the top news stories of the week were collected May 17-20, 2012, from a nationally representative sample of 1,004 adults.

With a contested primary in only one party this year, fewer Americans are closely following news about the presidential campaign than four years ago. As a consequence, long-term declines in the number of people getting campaign news from such sources as local TV and network news have steepened, and even the number gathering campaign news online, which had nearly tripled between 2000 and 2008, has leveled off in 2012.

The one constant over the course of the past four elections is the reach of cable news. Currently, 36% of Americans say they are regularly learning about the candidates or campaign on cable news networks. That is virtually unchanged from previous campaigns, yet cable news is now the top regular source for campaign news.

The cable networks also hosted most of the candidate debates, which stand out as a particularly interesting aspect of the campaign. Nearly half of Republicans (47%) have watched a GOP debate during this campaign, up from 32% at a comparable point four years ago.

In contrast to cable, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press’ 2012 campaign news survey, conducted Jan. 4-8 among 1,507 adults nationwide, finds broad declines in the numbers getting campaign news from newspapers, and local and network TV news. Just 20% say they regularly learn something about the presidential campaign or candidates from their local daily newspapers. In 2008, 31% said they got campaign news from their daily newspaper and 40% did so in the 2000 election cycle. There are comparable declines in the share regularly getting campaign information from network evening news programs and local TV news. For all three of these sources, the rate of decline slowed during the dramatic 2008 election cycle, but has again continued on a downward track.

In previous campaigns, declining figures for traditional sources were at least partly offset by increasing numbers turning to the internet. But that is not the case in 2012, as the number regularly getting campaign news online has leveled off. This is largely due to a lack of interest in the early 2012 campaign among younger Americans, who have traditionally been the broadest internet news consumers, and who also are less apt to be Republicans.

Over the month of January, only 20% of those younger than 30 said they were following news about the campaign very closely, down from 31% in January 2008. In fact, on the weekend Newt Gingrich won a dramatic victory in the South Carolina primary, young people expressed as much interest in a battle over online piracy legislation as they did in the campaign. (See “Cruise Ship Accident, Election Top Public’s Interests,” Jan. 24, 2012).

As campaign interest among young people has declined, fewer say they are going online for campaign news. Just 29% of those younger than 30 regularly learn something about the campaign online, down from 42% four years ago. Early in the 2008 campaign, people under age 30 were twice as likely as people 30 and older to get campaign information online. There is far less of an age gap today.

While other sources have advanced and receded, cable news networks have held their own over the past four election cycles. Moreover, cable news reaches a substantial number across age and partisan lines. To be sure, Republicans and Democrats are increasingly turning to different cable networks for their campaign news. When asked where they get most of their campaign news, far more Republicans than Democrats cite Fox News, while Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to cite CNN and MSNBC.

Few Learning from Social Networks

Many of the newest internet tools for getting campaign information, including social networking, are being used by a relatively limited audience. One-in-five Americans (20%) say they regularly or sometimes get campaign information from Facebook and just one-in-twenty (5%) say the same about Twitter. Even among Facebook and Twitter users, most say they hardly ever or never learn about the campaign or candidates through those sources.

About half (52%) of Americans say they at least sometimes learn about the campaign from websites or apps of TV, newspaper, magazine or radio news organizations. Slightly more than a third (36%) regularly or sometimes learn from websites or apps of news sources that are only available online.

When respondents are asked to name the specific internet sources they turn to for campaign news and information, the most frequently cited are CNN (by 24% of those who get campaign news online), Yahoo (22%), Google (13%), Fox News (10%), MSN (9%) and MSNBC (8%). Politically-oriented sites like Huffington Post and the Drudge Report are each mentioned by only 2% of those who get campaign news online.

More See Biased Coverage

The survey finds that the number saying there is a great deal of political bias in the news has risen to a new high, with the most intense criticism coming from Tea Party Republicans. Currently, 37% of Americans say there is a great deal of bias in news coverage and 30% say there is a fair amount of bias. Far fewer see not too much bias (21%) or none at all (10%). The percentage saying there is a great deal of bias has increased six points, from 31% to 37%, since 2008.

About three-quarters (74%) of Republicans who agree with the Tea Party movement say there is a great deal of bias – at least twice the percentage as in any other political group, including non-Tea Party Republicans (33%) and liberal Democrats (36%). Among news audiences, those who cite the Fox News Channel or the radio as their main source of campaign news are the most likely to say there is a great deal of bias in news coverage.

Campaign Outreach

While new technology allows campaigns and groups multiple ways to reach out to voters, campaign commercials have by far the widest reach. Fully 72% of registered voters nationwide report having seen or heard campaign commercials related to the 2012 presidential campaign. That is far more than the percentages saying they have received  email from a campaign or political group (16%), visited a candidate’s website (15%) or followed a candidate’s updates on Twitter or Facebook (6%).

While small, the number of people who track candidates on social networking has grown. At this point in the 2008 campaign, just 3% said they had signed up as a “friend” of a candidate on a social networking site.

One-in-four (25%) say they have already received pre-recorded telephone calls about the campaign, often referred to as “robocalls.” That is comparable to the level early in the 2008 presidential campaign. Only about a third as many (8%) have gotten phone calls from a live person. Telephone outreach has not been limited to Republicans. Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters are just as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to have received live phone calls (8% each), and only slightly less likely to have received campaign robocalls (23% vs. 28% of Republicans).

Overall, 7% of registered voters say they have contributed money to a campaign, about the level measured early in the 2008 campaign (8% in Nov. 2007). But unlike four years ago, Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say they have contributed to a candidate – presumably Obama – in the 2012 campaign.