Pew Research Center

The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan research center based in Washington, D.C. There are seven [Page 582]separate projects within the Pew Research Center, most of which employ sample surveys as a primary research tool. In addition to relying on surveys for much of its research, the Pew Research Center also conducts research on survey methodology.

The oldest of the projects is the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which was founded in 1987 as the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press. The Times Mirror Center was originally created by the Times Mirror Company, a media corporation that owned The Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers and communications properties. Its mission was to conduct in-depth research that would illuminate the connections among the public policy world, the press, and the public, and to disseminate the research widely and without cost. In 1995, the Pew Charitable Trusts became the primary source of funding for the center, which was renamed the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. In 2004, several other Pew-funded research projects were combined under the umbrella organization of the Pew Research Center. The Pew Charitable Trusts is a Philadelphia-based public charity.

The president of the Pew Research Center is pollster Andrew Kohut, who was president of the Gallup Organization from 1979 to 1989 and who served as the research director for the Times Mirror Center when it was founded. He subsequently became its director in 1993. When funding from Times Mirror ended, Kohut obtained funding from Pew to continue the center's operations. In subsequent years, he oversaw the creation of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which extended the People & the Press's previous work on the Internet. He also forged research partnerships with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, Pew-funded projects that are now part of the Pew Research Center.

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conducts monthly polling in the United States on policy issues, public interest in the news, and political parties and elections. Among its regular but less frequent projects are (a) a biennial survey on news consumption; (b) a survey of foreign policy attitudes among the public and several groups of foreign policy elites; (c) a survey of U.S. journalists, conducted with the Project for Excellence in Journalism, regarding issues facing the news industry and journalism; (d) an annual survey on religion and politics conducted with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life; (e) surveys on the political values of the public; and (f) methodological research focused on issues facing the survey research community. The center also conducts extensive polling during national elections, typically including a broad "scene-setter" poll during the summer prior to the election, several polls during the fall focused on the issues and candidate images, a predictive survey conducted the weekend before the election, and a post-election survey to gauge the public's reaction to the outcome of the election and expectations for the future. In conjunction with the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the People & the Press Center also conducts a post-election survey on the public's use of the Internet to follow and participate in the election campaigns.

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