Author: Jcoleman

In 2022, harassment of religious groups by governments or social actors occurred in 192 out of the world’s 198 countries and territories, according to sources analyzed in our study. This was an increase by two countries from 2021 and a new peak level for the study. Here are the key findings: Governments harassed people for their religious beliefs and practices in 186 countries in 2022, up from 183 in 2021. Social groups or private individuals harassed people due to their religion in 164 countries, the same number as in 2021. Governments and/or social actors harassed religious groups in 192 countries,…

This chapter examines government restrictions and social hostilities in the world’s 25 most populous countries. Looking separately at these populous countries – which are home to about three-quarters of the world’s population – allows us to see how government restrictions and social hostilities impact a large portion of the world’s population. While each country has a national score on the Government Restrictions Index (GRI) and Social Hostilities Index (SHI), it is important to note that the restrictions measured on these indexes don’t affect all inhabitants in a country equally. For example, restrictions can often target minority groups more than majority…

As the wider political and media world has taken notice of news influencers, Americans have begun to incorporate these individuals’ posts into their news habits: About one-in-five (21%) say they regularly get news from news influencers on social media. This data comes from a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults conducted in late July and early August 2024. The term “news influencers” was defined for survey respondents as “individuals who have a large following on social media and often post about news or political or social issues.” This is similar to how we define this group in our analysis…

Social media is vast, with several distinct sites and innumerable accounts spread across them. Because of this complexity, researchers cast a wide net across the most popular sites to create an inclusive list of influencers who discuss news. First, we developed a set of keywords related to current events and civic issues across 45 topics that were relevant to broad audiences in the U.S. in early 2024. Then we used a set of social media marketing tools to find social media accounts with over 100,000 followers that used those keywords in early 2024. While the keywords used were focused on…

News influencers – People who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube. Political orientation – A measure of a news influencer’s partisan or ideological views. A right-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Republican or conservative or support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. A left-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Democrat, liberal or progressive or support Vice President Kamala Harris (or supported President Joe…

News influencers – People who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube. Political orientation – A measure of a news influencer’s partisan or ideological views. A right-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Republican or conservative or support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. A left-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Democrat, liberal or progressive or support Vice President Kamala Harris (or supported President Joe…

News influencers – People who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube. Political orientation – A measure of a news influencer’s partisan or ideological views. A right-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Republican or conservative or support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. A left-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Democrat, liberal or progressive or support Vice President Kamala Harris (or supported President Joe…

News influencers – People who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube. Political orientation – A measure of a news influencer’s partisan or ideological views. A right-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Republican or conservative or support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. A left-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Democrat, liberal or progressive or support Vice President Kamala Harris (or supported President Joe…

News influencers – People who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube. Political orientation – A measure of a news influencer’s partisan or ideological views. A right-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Republican or conservative or support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. A left-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Democrat, liberal or progressive or support Vice President Kamala Harris (or supported President Joe…

News influencers – People who regularly post about current events and civic issues on social media and have at least 100,000 followers on any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube. Political orientation – A measure of a news influencer’s partisan or ideological views. A right-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Republican or conservative or support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. A left-leaning news influencer is one who publicly expresses that they identify as a Democrat, liberal or progressive or support Vice President Kamala Harris (or supported President Joe…