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04.22.13

Public’s Knowledge of Science and Technology

Report Before you read the report, test your own News IQ by taking the interactive knowledge quiz. The short quiz includes many of the questions that were included in a national poll. Participants will instantly learn how they did on the quiz in comparison with the general public as well as with people like them. [...]

02.05.13

What the Public Knows – In Pictures, Maps, Graphs and Symbols

Before you read the report, test your own News IQ by taking the interactive knowledge quiz. The short quiz includes many of the questions that were included in a national poll. Participants will instantly learn how they did on the quiz in comparison with the general public as well as with people like them. [...]

04.11.12

What the Public Knows about the Political Parties

Before you read the report, test your own News IQ by taking the interactive knowledge quiz. The short quiz includes many of the questions that were included in a national poll. Participants will instantly learn how they did on the quiz in comparison with the general public as well as with people like them. [...]

11.07.11

What the Public Knows – In Words and Pictures

Before you read the report, test your own News IQ by taking the interactive knowledge quiz. The short quiz includes many of the questions that were included in a national poll. Participants will instantly learn how they did on the quiz in comparison with the general public as well as with people like them. [...]

03.31.11

Well Known: Clinton and Gadhafi; Little Known: Who Controls Congress

Take News IQ Quiz Before you read the report, we invite you to test your own News IQ by taking the latest interactive knowledge quiz now available on the Pew Research Center website. The short quiz includes many of the questions that were included in a national poll. Participants will instantly learn how they [...]

11.18.10

Public Knows Basic Facts about Politics, Economics, But Struggles with Specifics

Few Aware of TARP Repayment, Inflation Rate

11.18.10

Test Your News IQ

Take our latest quiz about prominent people and major events in the news. Then see how you did in comparison with 1,000 randomly sampled adults.

07.15.10

Well Known: Twitter; Little Known: John Roberts

An overwhelming proportion of Americans are familiar with Twitter, the online information-sharing network. Perhaps more surprisingly, a large majority also knows that children who are born to illegal immigrants in the United States are automatically U.S. citizens. Yet the public continues to struggle in identifying political figures, foreign leaders and even knowing facts about [...]

01.28.10

Senate Legislative Process A Mystery To Many

The public has consistently expressed strong interest in the health care debate, but relatively few Americans can correctly answer two key questions related to the Senate’s consideration of health care legislation. In the latest installment of the Pew Research Center’s News IQ Quiz, just 32% know that the Senate passed its version of the [...]

10.14.09

Well Known:Public Option, Sonia Sotomayor Little Known: Cap and Trade, Max Baucus

The U.S. government has a lot on its plate right now, which means that the American public has a lot to keep up with in the news. The Pew Research Center’s latest News IQ Quiz finds a mixed picture of public awareness on key issues, with majorities aware of some key facts on health [...]

12.15.08

Hillary’s New Job Better Known Than Dow Jones Average

Take the Quiz Before YouRead the Report: http://pewresearch.org/newsiq/ A new Pew News IQ survey yields some predictable results about the public’s knowledge of facts about politics and world affairs, but also a few surprises. Hillary Clinton’s nomination to be secretary of state is known by just about everyone – not too surprisingly. However, even [...]

10.15.08

Who Knows News? What You Read or View Matters, but Not Your Politics

08.17.08

Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional Sources

For more than a decade, the audiences for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news online has surged. However, today it is not a choice between traditional sources and the internet for the core elements of today’s news audiences. A sizable minority of Americans find themselves at [...]

04.04.08

Most Americans Unfamiliar with Petraeus, Rice Remains Popular

Summary of Findings Gen. David Petraeus has played a pivotal role in crafting the U.S. military strategy in Iraq, but he is an unfamiliar figure to most Americans. On the eve of Petraeus’ congressional testimony on the situation in Iraq, a solid majority (55%) says they do not know enough about the top U.S. commander [...]

03.12.08

Awareness of Iraq War Fatalities Plummets

Summary of Findings What’s Your News IQ? Take the LatestQuiz Public awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has declined sharply since last August. Today, just 28% of adults are able to say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war. As of March 10, the Department of Defense had [...]

09.24.07

Political Knowledge Update

What’s Your News IQ? Take the LatestQuiz Nearly nine-in-ten Americans know that China was the source of dangerous toys and tainted food recently in the news. And sizeable majorities can identify House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Sunni as the branch of Islam struggling with the Shia for control in [...]

04.15.07

Public Knowledge of Current Affairs Little Changed by News and Information Revolutions

Summary of Findings What’s Your News IQ? Take the Latest Quiz Since the late 1980s, the emergence of 24-hour cable news as a dominant news source and the explosive growth of the internet have led to major changes in the American public’s news habits. But a new nationwide survey finds that the coaxial and digital [...]

07.11.04

More News Is Not Necessarily Good News

by Andrew Kohut in the New York Times

01.15.02

Young People up to Speed on Terrorism News

by Andrew Kohut for America Online

04.25.00

The Public Affairs Gender Gap

In addition to regularly tracking news interest, the Pew Research Center has periodically tested the public’s knowledge of news and current events by including “information” questions on many of its surveys. These information questions are designed to provide insight into how extensively major news stories are understood and absorbed by the public. They cover a [...]

05.17.97

Ten Years of the Pew News Interest Index

Survey Findings An analysis of public attentiveness to more than 500 news stories over the last ten years confirms that the American public pays relatively little attention to many of the serious news stories of the day. The major exceptions to this rule are stories dealing with natural and man-made disasters and U.S. military actions. [...]

12.28.95

Younger Americans and Women Less Informed: One In Four Americans Follow National News Closely

Summary On the occasion of our transition from Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press to the Pew Research Center, we offer an overview of what we have learned during the past five years about the news stories that are followed closely by the public and how much Americans know about current events. [...]

05.19.94

Public Tunes Out Recent News

Report Summary The American public has not absorbed the basic facts of many major news stories of recent months. While most Americans know that Nelson Mandela was elected in South Africa, and that Richard Nixon was the President forced to resign over Watergate, a new nationwide survey by the Times Mirror Center found the public [...]

03.16.94

Mixed Message About Press Freedom on Both Sides of Atlantic

Report Summary In a comparative media survey across eight countries, the publics of North America and Western Europe credit the news media for its positive overall impact on their countries. Large majorities said the press helps their democracies and has a good influence on their societies — usually better than the influence of other institutions, [...]

05.08.92

Public Interest and Awarness of the News

Report Summary While news about the Rodney King verdict and the Los Angeles riots clearly dominated the public’s interest, reports about the condition of the economy were still very closely followed by four in ten Americans (39%). But attention to the economy dropped significantly since Times Mirror’s March and February polls (47% and 47% respectively). [...]

10.10.90

Gas Prices Rival Gulf For Public Attention

Report Summary The focus of the American public’s attention is shifting to the domestic consequences of the Gulf crisis. Although Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and U.S. troop deployment to the Gulf continues to dominate the consciousness of Americans, news about rising gasoline prices drew nearly as much public interest in September. At the same time, [...]

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