I am taking from this that reading The Next Mayor will help you with Pew surveys (The Next Mayor)

Ok, bear with this. There's a quiz at the end, and a point to be made.

I will now present for you a news release I just received, about how much people know about public affairs, with my internal monologue in parentheses.

From: The Pew Research Center, April 15, 2007

PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE OF CURRENT AFFAIRS LITTLE CHANGED BY NEWS AND INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS

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. (W: Yeah, no kidding, and in the work hours of newspaper editors.) But a new nationwide survey finds that the coaxial and digital revolutions and attendant changes in news audience behaviors have had little impact on how much Americans know about national and international affairs. (W: Uh, oh.)

Americans are no more or less likely now than in 1989 to be able to identify political leaders or know key details about major events in the news, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. (W: I hate this! So why am I blogging on a Sunday afternoon? We work too hard for people to be ignorant, darnit!) The new poll includes nine questions that are either identical or roughly comparable to questions asked in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2007, somewhat fewer were able to name their governor, the vice president, and the president of Russia, but more respondents than in the earlier era gave correct answers to questions pertaining to national politics. (W: I can't imagine they do any better on local politics.)

The survey of 1,502 adults between Feb.1-13, 2007 also finds that while the average American is better educated today than two decades ago, these gains do not mean that the public knows more today about domestic politics or foreign affairs. In fact, the average college or high-school graduate knows less about current events today than in 1989. (W: *Is annoyed, goes to quiz daughter, who does OK for a second-grader. Knows president and, thanks to a trip to the Constitution Center this weekend, the difference between the White House and Capitol. Also knows some men running for Mayor. Good girl.*)

Substantial differences exist in the knowledge levels of the audiences for different news outlets. Audiences for cable shows like the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, people who regularly visit major newspaper websites, as well as regular viewers of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and the O’Reilly Factor, on average, know more than regular watchers of the morning news shows, the Fox News Channel or local TV news programs. (W: HOORAY! We knew it -- reading this site -- which is supported by my employer, the Philadelphia Daily News, DOES make you smarter! Now, I love this press release.)

As part of the Pew Knowledge Project, people are invited to test their own news IQ by taking an online interactive quiz. The short quiz includes versions of some of the same questions that were included in the 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. Take the quiz yourself by clicking on this link.

For the full PDF of the report, go here.

PS: If anyone wants to comment with the questions we should ask in a similar quiz on the mayor's race, feel free and I will work it up into a survey.

Comments (4)

Dave

I got a 44 on that quiz ;-)

I spend so much time paying attention to local politics that I don't have time for national politics (I think local affects me more, since I live in such a large city with so many problems, so I've chosen to put my focus there).

Some suggestions for a local quiz:

1) How many people have been convicted or plead guilty to corruptions charges stemming from the FBI investigation into Philadelphia's City Hall?

2) Do you know who your Committeeman/woman and ward leader are?

3) True or false: it's legal for a Committeeman or Ward Leader to be employed by a publicly funded non-profit.

4) What council district do you live in and who represents it?

5) How many at-large councilpeople represent you? How many of them can you name?

Posted by Dave | April 15, 2007 10:10 PM

Wendy:

Pretty good - but at least two of those are quite tough. Maybe I will make them multiple choice, like Pew did?

Posted by Wendy | April 16, 2007 12:07 AM

Multiple choice works. They're more of the "inform the public" type questions than anything I'd expect the average person to know. Here's another:

- How many years has it been since we had a Republican mayor and for how many years before that did Philadelphia have nothing but Republican mayors?

Posted by Dave | April 16, 2007 9:01 AM

Anonymous:

You should also know that many of the "ghost" ward leaders are being purchased by knox and I find that offensive. I agree that quite a few of these ward leaders are certified drones and that's the voters and party's collective fault. I despise the fact that knox potrays himself as an outsider and all the while he has the King of Dirty Deeds John Doc and his minions working for him. They have every deceitful money grubbing, back stabbing, political hack you can rent working for them.

My point is that these are the people we all agree make our system corrupt. They would sell out their mothers for a buck and knox has hired them all.

Stand up and hold him accountable for his depsicable actions.

Posted by Anonymous | April 16, 2007 6:09 PM

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