"Although the age gap in religious commitment is larger in some nations than in others, it occurs in many different economic and social contexts – in developing countries as well as advanced industrial economies, in Muslim-majority nations as well as predominantly Christian states, and in societie
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s that are, overall, highly religious as well as those that are comparatively secular. For example, adults younger than 40 are less likely than older adults to say religion is “very important” in their lives not only in wealthy and relatively secular countries such as Canada, Japan and Switzerland, but also in countries that are less affluent and more religious, such as Iran, Poland and Nigeria." (Page 5)
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"Fake news, post-truth and filter bubbles are other people’s problems, not ours…: 65% think that other people live in a bubble on the internet, mostly looking for opinions they already agree with – but only 34% say they live in their own bubble; 63% are confident they can identify fake news -
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but only 41% think average person can; 58% think they’re better than average at spotting fake news, only 28% think they’re not; 60% think other people don’t care about facts any more, they just believe what they want; 59% think they have a better understanding of social realities like crime rates than the average person, only 29% think they don’t." (Page 3)
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"Popular support for a free news media has declined significantly in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania – three countries currently making headlines for government attempts to limit press freedom. Recent Afrobarometer surveys show that the proportion of respondents who say the government “should have t
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he right to prevent the media from publishing things that it considers harmful to society” has risen sharply in Tanzania and Uganda, and more modestly in Kenya, over the past five years. At the same time, fewer citizens say they feel free to express their opinions." (Page 1)
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"Presentamos la evolución de la religión en Chile y en América Latina entre 1995 y 2017 con ocasión de la visita del Papa Francisco a Chile. Se observan grandes cambios en la cantidad de ciudadanos que declaran pertenecer a una religión u otra. En 2017 hay siete países de la región donde la r
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eligión católica no es dominante, en 2013 eran cuatro. Chile destaca por la fuerte caída del catolicismo y el fuerte aumento de los que no declaran tener ninguna religión, son agnósticos o ateos. Es un caso de secularización acelerada. El impacto del caso Karadima en Chile queda plasmado en la caída de los que se declaran católicos y la práctica religiosa. Al mismo tiempo se observa un repunte del catolicismo con la llegada del Papa Francisco en 2013. La pregunta que está en el aire es si acaso el liderazgo del Pontífice puede producir una recuperación del catolicismo en América Latina y en Chile." (Resumen ejecutivo)
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"These are the latest findings from the Ipsos Perils of Perception survey. The results highlight how wrong people across 38 countries are about some key issues and features of the population in their country. Perceptions are not reality … Things are not as bad as they seem ... Only a small minorit
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y of people in most countries think the murder rate has declined in their country since 2000, despite that being true in most countries, and the overall rate across these countries having declined by 29% [...] Very few people in most countries think deaths from terrorist attacks are lower in recent years, despite that being the case in most countries [...] Most countries greatly overestimate the proportion of prisoners in their country that are immigrants, with the Netherlands, South Africa, France and the USA particularly likely to guess too high [...] All countries overestimate teenage births, and many are hugely wrong, particularly in Latin America and South Africa. But even countries with very low levels of teenage births overestimate significantly. For example, actual rates are under 1% in Canada and France but the average guess is that one in five teenagers get pregnant each year [...] Nearly six in ten people across the countries as a whole say they are unsure or believe that there is a link between vaccines and autism in healthy children, despite the claim being widely discredited. Some countries, particularly Montenegro and India, have very high levels of belief in the claim [...] (Slides 2-12)
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"A majority respect religious people but are divided on religion’s impact on the world and its importance for a “moral life” [...] Half of people around the world think that religion does more harm than good – but views vary greatly between some countries [...] Two in five people around the
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world say their religion defines them as a person – this is most true for Indians and South Africans [...] The majority in all countries feel “completely comfortable” being around people of different religions [...] Most countries are tolerant of people without religious beliefs – although more Indians report this as an issue compared to others [...] Only one third of countries think that religious people make “better” citizens – but this varies greatly between some countries, including India and Japan… but on average, countries are more split on whether or not religious practices are important to a “moral life”." (Pages 3-10)
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"These are the latest findings from the Ipsos Perils of Perception survey. The results highlight how wrong people across 40 countries are about some key issues and features of the population in their country. Perceptions are not reality… Nearly all countries overestimate their Muslim population, a
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nd many are extraordinarily wrong [...] Nearly every country thinks their Muslim population will grow much more than is projected [...] Every country thinks people are much less happy than they say they are [...] People are often very wrong on how acceptable their fellow citizens find homosexuality [...] Countries are also often very wrong on how acceptable people find sex before marriage [...] (Slides 2-12)
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"The paper presents results of the research focused on opinion leaders and interpretive communities of young active Catholics in Slovakia in connection with contemporary ecclesial-societal issues. The author pays a special attention to the Church opinion leaders and the sources of the opinion leader
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s credibility. She proceeds from a broader research, realized on the sample of 339 respondents from 18 to 40 years old. She is linking her findings with the three current ecclesial-societal issues: the removal of the archbishop Róbert Bezák from office, financial separation of Church and state and clerical celibacy." (Abstract)
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"Der Islam ist heute die zweitgrößte Religion in Deutschland und durch Moscheen wie auch andere religiöse Symbole in der Öffentlichkeit präsent. Zugleich ist sein Bild in weiten Teilen der Bevölkerung ungewöhnlich negativ geprägt. Diese Ablehnung lässt sich in einer zunehmend pluralistische
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n und multireligiösen Gesellschaft nicht als Randerscheinung abtun. Vielmehr werden damit zentrale Fragen des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts aufgeworfen. Die vorliegende Publikation „Die Wahrnehmung des Islams in Deutschland“ untersucht vor diesem Hintergrund die besonderen Facetten des Islambilds und der Wahrnehmung der Muslime hierzulande. Die Autoren Kai Hafez und Sabrina Schmidt setzen sich intensiv mit dem Einfluss von Stereotypen auseinander und analysieren die Entstehungsursachen der verbreiteten Islamfeindlichkeit. Dabei gehen sie auch dem Zusammenhang zwischen politischer Einstellung, sozialem Hintergrund sowie persönlichen Kontakten und dem Islambild nach." (Buchrücken)
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"Almost half (49%) of all Russians believe that information on the Internet needs to be censored; a plurality (42%) of Russians believe foreign countries are using the Internet against Russia and its interests. About one-quarter of Russians think the Internet threatens political stability (24%); abo
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ut four out of five Russians (81%) stated a negative feeling toward calls to protest against the government and change political leadership; the Russian government and the Russian security service were virtually tied in the percentage of Russians (42% and 41% respectively) that cited these organizations as trusted regulators of the Internet; 51% of Russian believe the primary motivation of government legislation creating a blacklist of websites is the maintenance of political stability versus 13% who believe the primarily motivation was limiting democratic freedoms." (Website CGCS)
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"The report reveals that for most respondents, Christianity is a concept that is foreign to Turkish culture. Whilst this situation is a consequence of the low numbers of Christians, it is also influenced by educational content and the media. Despite the rich history of Christianity in Turkey, the ex
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istence of numerous ancient Christian sites and centuries of living side by side, only a fraction of the public has a good level of knowledge about Christian history and practice. More creative and holistic inclusion of Christianity in formal education curricula and in the mass media can contribute to improved understanding and the public’s ability to recoup and value its lost heritage. More than half of the respondents state that neither the media nor the public is objective in its treatment of non-Muslims. It may be helpful to develop a deeper understanding of this reported partiality in future research. Questions also arise regarding the public’s significant over-estimation of the proportion of Christians in the general population and whether this is linked to fear or perceptions of bias." (Conclusion)
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"These are the latest findings from the Ipsos Perils of Perception survey. The results highlight how wrong people across 33 countries are about some key issues and features of the population in their country. Perceptions are not reality… People generally overestimate the total household wealth tha
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t the wealthiest 1% in their country own. This is particularly true for developed countries [...] People tend to think the wealthiest 1% should own a lower proportion of their country’s total household wealth than they currently do [...] The public generally underestimate the proportion of overweight or obese people in their country [...] Across the world, people tend to overestimate the level of non-religious people in their country [...] People generally overestimate the level of immigration in their country. This is particularly true in Latin America [...] In every country across the study, people overestimate the average age within their country [...] (Slides 2-16)
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"Tanzanians express near-unanimous satisfaction with the degree of freedom of expression in the country: 96% of respondents in 2014 say they feel somewhat or completely free to say what they think. Two-thirds (65%) say the media should scrutinize the government and report on corruption and mistakes.
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This is 15 percentage points lower than in 2012. Slightly more than half (53%) of respondents say the media should have the right to publish any views and ideas without government control, a decrease of 20 percentage points since 2012. During the same period, the proportion favouring government control rose from 26% to 44%. A stable majority (65% in 2014, 67% in 2012) trust in the reliability of the news media’s reports. Three-fourths (76%) of Tanzanians laud the news media’s effectiveness in exposing corruption in the government. This is 8 percentage points lower than in 2012. The more frequently a person is exposed to news and the higher his/her level of education, the more likely s/he is to support investigative and independent media reporting, to believe in the reliability of news, and to laud the effectiveness of the news media in its watchdog role." (Key findings, page 2)
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"Batswana overwhelmingly express support for media and individual freedoms. This suggests that freedom of expression – both personal and collective – is regarded by the Batswana as an essential attribute of a functioning democracy. Despite recent government attempts to suppress the media and ind
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ividual freedoms, Batswana have remained firm in their commitment to these freedoms. These findings were revealed by the recent Afrobarometer survey of a representative sample of 1200 adult Batswana conducted in October 2008 by faculty from the Departments of Political and Administrative Studies, Sociology and Statistics at the University of Botswana." (Page 2)
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"Afghanistan had the highest rate of suffering in the world for 2013 and 2014. Those with a post-secondary education are the most avid media users for news overall. Highly educated Afghans were more likely to use TV, radio, Internet, SMS, and social media on a daily basis for news than other segment
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s of the population. Radio remains important but TV is the most popular platform and new media is still nascent. TV is dominant in the North due to availability of electricity." (Key takeaways, page 40)
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"Cambodia is a country on the cusp of rapid media change. TV and radio remain the top media and main sources of news. Apolitical newcomer Hang Meas is top source with tabloid news, entertainment. But new media is gaining, fueled by widespread mobile use: almost all households have a mobile phone; yo
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ung, educated and urban drive new media use. Internet numbers remain in low double digits, but growth is exponential: outside infrastructure investment increasing broadband mobile rapidly; those who use the Internet use it for broadband activities¡Xvideo, audio¡Xeven in the countryside. Facebook dominates social media and is the top online news source." (Key takeaways, slide 37)
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"Overall, 84% of Latin American adults report that they were raised Catholic, 15 percentage points more than currently identify as Catholic. The pattern is reversed among Protestants and people who do not identify with any religion: While the Catholic Church has lost adherents through religious swit
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ching, both Protestant churches and the religiously unaffiliated population in the region have gained members. Just one-in-ten Latin Americans (9%) were raised in Protestant churches, but nearly one-in-five (19%) now describe themselves as Protestants. And while only 4% of Latin Americans were raised without a religious affiliation, twice as many (8%) are unaffiliated today. Much of the movement away from Catholicism and toward Protestantism in Latin America has occurred in the span of a single lifetime. Indeed, in most of the countries surveyed, at least a third of current Protestants were raised in the Catholic Church, and half or more say they were baptized as Catholics. For example, nearly three-quarters of current Protestants in Colombia were raised Catholic, and 84% say they were baptized as Catholics. The survey asked former Catholics who have converted to Protestantism about the reasons they did so. Of the eight possible explanations offered on the survey, the most frequently cited was that they were seeking a more personal connection with God. Many former Catholics also said they became Protestants because they wanted a different style of worship or a church that helps its members more. Smaller percentages of converts to Protestantism also cite other factors – such as health or family problems (a regional median of 20%) or marriage to a non-Catholic (median of 9%) – as important reasons why they are no longer Catholic." (Overview, page 4-5)
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"Nigeria is a complex country grappling with serious economic, political, and security challenges. New media are an increasingly effective pathway for reaching Nigerian audiences, especially those who are media rich. However, there remain media poor segments of the population who can only be reached
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through traditional media (if at all)." (Closing thoughts, slide 36)
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