Most Americans know little about the workings of the U.S. Supreme Court, including the fact that Supreme Court rulings are final, according to a national survey conducted for the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. The findings are being released today in advance of Constitution Day, Monday, September 17. When asked “if a person

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer features an op-ed in favor of the adoption of Canadian-style cigarette warning labels in the U.S. Such large, graphic warning labels are more effective, argue Professor Paul Slovic of the University of Oregon and APPC scholars Dan Romer and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, authors of the op-ed. The authors cite their research, published earlier this year in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, suggesting that graphic warnings

FactCheck.org has won a Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications. The prize, given in the online media category, recognizes FactCheck’s 2006 election coverage. It will be presented in October at the Association for Women in Communications’ annual conference in Orlando, Florida. Earlier this year, FactCheck.org won two Webby “People’s Voice” awards in

A public service announcement that promotes HIV awareness to young African-Americans has been awarded a silver Telly Award – the top award given by the Tellys – in an international competition honoring video productions and commercials. The ad, which sends the message that anyone can be affected and that no one is immune, was produced by MEE Productions Inc. of

  The Office of the President will join the Annenberg Public Policy Center and The Institute for Public Service at the AnnenbergSchool for Communication on October 18 to pay tribute to the Honorable Leonore Annenberg at the Leonore Annenberg Lecture in Public Service and Global Understanding. The event will feature George P. Shultz, the Thomas W. and

For the second year in a row, Annenberg Political Fact Check (www.factcheck.org) has been included among the 25 Sites We Can’t Live Without by Time.com. FactCheck “is an independent, nonpartisan effort to cut through the routine spin and dissembling of politicians and other public figures,” noted Time. “Staff writers check speeches, TV ads, news releases

C-Span viewers this weekend watched as 12 voters from the Baltimore area talked about the direction of the nation and what they wanted in  a presidential candidate. The two-hour program is the first in a series of focus groups to be conducted in advance of the 2008 election by Democratic pollster Peter Hart, on behalf

Thirty-nine states elect their judges in some fashion. What once were “sleepy little affairs,” judicial campaigns have become high-stakes races, drawing in big money and increasingly negative advertising campaigns. In 2006, an estimated $16 million was spent on advertising in supreme court races in 10 states, a record. If predictions hold true, contests in 2008

Nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, of Americans prefer electing their judges rather than having governors nominate them from a list prepared by a nonpartisan committee. Yet when judges run for office they usually have to raise money for their election campaigns. Seven in 10 Americans believe that the necessity to raise campaign funds will affect a

Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, co-authors of UnSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation, described their findings in a May 15th interview on WHYY-FM’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane. The book, published last month by Random House, has been described as “the secret decoder ring for the 21st-century world of disinformation.” Jackson, who directs