Summary of Findings

Wall-to-wall media reports on the war in Iraq have not resulted in significant improvement in the public’s view of the media’s coverage of this war compared with the first Persian Gulf conflict. However, there are signs that 24-7 televised images of war are taking an increasing psychological toll. In recent days, more than four-in-ten (42%) expressed the view that “It tires me out to watch” TV coverage of the war, up from about one-in-three who agreed with that statement in the early days of the conflict.

There also have been notable increases in the numbers reporting other emotional reactions to watching coverage of the war. Over the past three days (March 25-27), 67% said they felt sad when they watched war coverage, up from 56% during the first days of the conflict (March 20-22). Similarly, the proportion who said it was “frightening” to watch war coverage increased from 45% to 58% over the same period.

The Pew Research Center’s tracking poll on war opinion shows that, in general, public evaluations of war coverage are not much different than they were a dozen years ago during the first Persian Gulf War. Three-in-ten Americans say they have a great deal of confidence in the accuracy of war reports, while 51% have a fair amount of confidence. Similarly, about three-quarters give the coverage a rating of excellent (34%) or good (41%). In both cases, opinion is about the same as it was in late January 1991, during the air war in Iraq (and prior to the start of the ground campaign).

More Americans have a great deal of confidence in the accuracy of military reports on the war than they do in media coverage (40% vs. 30%), though overall positive assessments for the military and media are similar. The number expressing a high degree of confidence in military reports also has risen since the first Persian Gulf War (40% now, 29% then).

Initial public reactions to the practice of news organizations embedding journalists with the troops have been favorable, though not overwhelmingly so. Nearly six-in-ten think it is a good thing that TV and newspaper reporters are traveling with U.S. forces and filing dispatches from the field, while a third say it is a bad thing.

A sample of respondents who took a negative view of the practice of embedding journalists with military forces were asked why they felt this way. Most said they felt that the reporters were providing too much information. Among these, many expressed concerns that the coverage provides intelligence to the enemy that could compromise the military campaign, while about an equal number suggested that the coverage was not good for Americans to see, or was just “too much.”

A number of people also said they worried about the dangers confronting the reporters themselves, and a few expressed concern that journalists may hinder or encumber the troops. Only a few people thought the presence of journalists with U.S. forces would result in biased reports, either in favor of the war or against it.

Results for the Late March War Tracking survey are based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates among a nationwide sample of 2,034 adults, 18 years of age or older, during the period March 20-27, 2003. Results are reported separately for the periods of March 20-22 (N=903), March 23-24 (N=592), and March 25-27 (N=539). In addition, certain questions were asked only for the period of March 24-27 (N=814).

For results based on March 20-22 and March 24-27, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 4 percentage points. For results based on March 23-24 and March 25-27, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

The sample for this survey is a random digit sample of telephone numbers selected from telephone exchanges in the continental United States. The sample was released for interviewing in replicates, with fresh replicates introduced on each night of the tracking poll, and retired from the sample after five nights of interviewing. Non-response in telephone interview surveys produces some known biases in survey-derived estimates because participation tends to vary for different subgroups of the population, and these subgroups are likely to vary also on questions of substantive interest. In order to compensate for these known biases and ensure that tracking trends are not unduly influenced by demographic variation across the field period, the sample data for each period of the tracking poll (March 20-22, 23-24 and 25-27) are weighted to approximate the demographic parameters derived from the most recently available Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (March 2002).