More people around the world see U.S. power and influence as a ‘major threat’ to their country

https://youtu.be/jYs75AzA4xU

By John Gramlich and Kat Devlin

A growing share of people around the world see U.S. power and influence as a “major threat” to their country, and these views are linked with attitudes toward President Donald Trump and the United States as a whole, according to Pew Research Center surveys conducted in 22 nations since 2013.

As confidence in president, favorable views of America have declined, more see U.S. power as a 'major threat'

 

A median of 45% across the surveyed nations see U.S. power and influence as a major threat, up from 38% in the same countries during Trump’s first year as president in 2017 and 25% in 2013, during the administration of Barack Obama. The long-term increase in the share of people who see American power as a threat has occurred alongside declines in the shares of people who say they have confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing regarding world affairs and who have a favorable view of the United States. (For more about global views toward the U.S. president and the country he leads, see “Trump’s International Ratings Remain Low, Especially Among Key Allies.”)

Despite these changes, U.S. power and influence still ranks below other perceived threats around the world. Considerably larger shares of people point to global climate change (seen as a major threat by a median of 67%), the Islamic militant group known as ISIS (cited by 62%) and cyberattacks (cited by 61%). U.S. power and influence, in fact, is not seen as the top threat in any of the countries surveyed.

People see U.S. power and influence as a greater threat in the Trump era

 

Still, in 18 of the 22 countries, there were statistically significant increases in the share of people who see American power and influence as a major threat between 2013 and 2018. That includes increases of 30 percentage points in Germany, 29 points in France, and 26 points in Brazil and Mexico. And while these shares rose substantially in many countries after Trump’s election, they increased further in several nations between Trump’s first and second year in office.

In Germany and France, for instance, the share of people who see U.S. power and influence as a major threat went up by 14 and 13 percentage points, respectively, between 2017 and 2018. Other notable year-over-year increases occurred in Tunisia (11 points), Canada and Argentina (8 points each), South Africa (7 points) and Brazil and Russia (6 points each).

Other nations bucked this trend, however. In Spain, for example, the share of people who see American power as a major threat fell by 17 points between 2017 and 2018 (from 59% to 42%). Still, people in Spain remain much more likely to see the U.S. as a threat today than in 2013.

Overall, there are 10 nations surveyed where roughly half or more now see U.S. power as a major threat, with the biggest shares saying this in South Korea (67%), Japan (66%) and Mexico (64%).

In South Korea, equal shares point to U.S. power and influence and to North Korea’s nuclear program as a major threat to their nation (each is cited by 67% of the public). However, several other perceived threats to South Koreans outrank U.S. power and influence, including global climate change (named by 86% of South Koreans), China’s power and influence (cited by 82%), cyberattacks from other countries (cited by 81%) and the condition of the global economy (cited by 74%). South Koreans have long perceived American power as a major threat to their country: 66% said this in 2013 and 70% said it in 2017.

In many of the surveyed countries, concerns about American power and influence are connected with views of Trump: People who have little or no confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing regarding world affairs are more likely than those who have confidence in Trump to see U.S. power and influence as a top threat to their country. This includes several longtime U.S. allies, including Canada, the UK and Australia.

The same pattern appears when it comes to views of the U.S. in general, as opposed to its president. In most surveyed nations, people who have a more unfavorable view of the U.S. are also more likely to say that American power and influence is a threat to their nation.

Topics: U.S. Global Image and Anti-Americanism, Country Image, Donald Trump


  John Gramlich is a writer/editor at Pew Research Center.


Related:
 
Yang Jiechi defends Huawei at the Munich Security Conference

https://youtu.be/vuqL7fBDWrI

China to US: You’re lying about Huawei
https://youtu.be/WdNobdkSQyA

US trying to sabotage Huawei, ZTE and Sino-5G. Too late. Game over. China Rising Radio Sinoland
  https://youtu.be/UN3cUQ2LdhQ


Related post:

China to US: You’re lying about Huawei, unjust and immoral bullying

China to lead as superpower

 China will surpass US to become leading superpower - global survey finds it will or already has surpassed the US

People the world over tend to believe that China will surpass the US to become the world's leading superpower, China News Service said, citing a global survey.

Conducted by the Pew Research Center, the survey of 48,643 respondents older than 18 in 44 countries found that 49 percent agree that China will eventually replace or has replaced the US as the world's leading superpower, while 34 percent disagree.

This view is shared across all regions surveyed, especially among European countries. Across the seven European Union nations polled, 60 percent think China will or already has replaced the US.

In general, global views of China are positive. China's growing economy is considered a good thing by most countries, though China's increasing prosperity is considered a threat in some, one of which is the US.

China's image in the US has deteriorated, with 35 percent expressing a positive view, down from half in 2011, the report said.

Meanwhile, the rising power of China is generating anxiety among its neighbors. More than half of respondents in 11 Asian countries surveyed worry that territorial disputes will lead to conflict with China, including 93 percent of Filipinos, 85 percent of Japanese, 84 percent of Vietnamese and 83 percent of South Koreans.

Two-thirds of Americans and 62 percent of Chinese also say they are concerned.

Respondents in Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam see China as their top security threat, while the US is seen as the top security threat in three Asian nations: China, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Across the globe, young people tend to have more positive attitudes toward China than older respondents. In 23 countries, people aged 18 to 29 give China higher ratings than those 50 and older. In the UK, Mexico, the US and France, the gap between older and younger respondents is 20 percentage points.



Source: Asia News Network

BRICS establish Development Bank US$100bil in Shanghai to cut out Western dominance

China contributes $41 bln to contingent reserve The BRICS countries are a step closer to having a bigger say in the world’s financial...

Related:

 
BRICS bank grounded on equal footing

China wants to draw support from BRICS, but has no ambition to control the group.

Beijing can take guiding role in BRICS

Despite relatively smooth development of its relations with the other four BRICS nations, China cannot afford to ignore or underestimate corresponding challenges.

Facebook? No thanks!

As Facebook grows, millions say, 'no, thanks'
 

(AP) NEW YORK -- Don't try to friend MaLi Arwood on Facebook. You won't find her there.

You won't find Thomas Chin, either. Or Kariann Goldschmitt. Or Jake Edelstein.

More than 900 million people worldwide check their Facebook accounts at least once a month, but millions more are Facebook holdouts.

They say they don't want Facebook. They insist they don't need Facebook. They say they're living life just fine without the long-forgotten acquaintances that the world's largest social network sometimes resurrects.

They are the resisters.

CBS MoneyWatch's complete coverage of Facebook IPO
Facebook prices IPO at $38 per share
VIDEO: Facebook: 5 years of IPO talk

"I'm absolutely in touch with everyone in my life that I want to be in touch with," Arwood says. "I don't need to share triviality with someone that I might have known for six months 12 years ago."

Even without people like Arwood, Facebook is one of the biggest business success stories in history.

The site had 1 million users by the end of 2004, the year Mark Zuckerberg started it in his Harvard dorm room. Two years later, it had 12 million. Facebook had 500 million by summer 2010 and 901 million as of March 31, according to the company.

That staggering rise in popularity is one reason why Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering is one of the most hotly anticipated in years. The company's shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday under the ticker symbol "FB". Facebook is likely to have an estimated market valuation of some $100 billion, making it worth more than Kraft Foods, Ford or Disney.

Facebook still has plenty of room to grow, particularly in developing countries where people are only starting to get Internet access. As it is, about 80 percent of its users are outside U.S. and Canada.

But if Facebook is to live up to its pre-IPO hype and reward the investors who are clamoring for its stock this week, it needs to convince some of the resisters to join. Two out of every five American adults have not joined Facebook, according to a recent Associated Press-CNBC poll. Among those who are not on Facebook, a third cited a lack of interest or need.

If all those people continue to shun Facebook, the social network could become akin to a postal system that only delivers mail to houses on one side of the street. The system isn't as useful, and people aren't apt to spend as much time with it. That means fewer opportunities for Facebook to sell ads.

Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, says that new communications channels - from the telephone to radio, TV and personal computers - often breed a cadre of holdouts in their early days.

"It's disorienting because people have different relationships with others depending on the media they use," Rainie says. "But we've been through this before. As each new communications media comes to prominence, there is a period of adoption."

Len Kleinrock, 77, says Facebook is fine for his grandchildren, but it's not for him.

"I do not want more distractions," he says. "As it is, I am deluged with email. My friends and colleagues have ready access to me and I don't really want another service that I would feel obliged to check into on a frequent basis."

Kleinrock says his resistance is generational, but discomfort with technology isn't a factor.

After all, Kleinrock is arguably the world's first Internet user. The University of California, Los Angeles professor was part of the team that invented the Internet. His lab was where researchers gathered in 1969 to send test data between two bulky computers -the beginnings of the Arpanet network, which morphed into the Internet we know today.

"I'm having a `been-there, done-that' feeling," Kleinrock says. "There's not a need on my part for reaching out and finding new social groups to interact with. I have trouble keeping up with those I'm involved with now." Thomas Chin, 35, who works at an advertising and media planning company in New York, says he may be missing out on what friends-of-friends-of-friends are doing, but he doesn't need Facebook to connect with family and closer acquaintances.

"If we're going to go out to do stuff, we organize it (outside) of Facebook," he says.

Some people don't join the social network because they don't have a computer or Internet access, are concerned about privacy, or generally dislike Facebook. Those without a college education are less likely to be on Facebook, as are those with lower incomes.

Women who choose to skip Facebook are more likely than men to cite privacy issues, while seniors are more likely than those 50-64 years old to cite computer issues, according the AP-CNBC poll.

About three-quarters of seniors are not on Facebook. By contrast, more than half of those under 35 use it every day.

The poll of 1,004 adults nationwide was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications May 3-7 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

Steve Jones, a professor who studies online culture and communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says many resisters consider Facebook to be too much of a chore.

"We've added social networking to our lives. We haven't added any hours to our days," Jones says. "The decision to be online on Facebook is simultaneously a decision not to be doing something else."

Jones says many people on Facebook try to overcome that by multitasking, but they end up splitting their attention and engaging with others online only superficially.

Arwood, 47, a restaurant manager in Chicago, says she was surprised when colleagues on an English-teaching program in rural Spain in 2010 opted to spend their breaks checking Facebook.

"I spent my time on break trying to learn more about the Spanish culture, really taking advantage of it," she says. "I went on walks with some of the students and asked them questions."

Kariann Goldschmitt, 32, a music professor at New College of Florida in Sarasota, Fla., was on Facebook not long after its founding in 2004, but she quit in 2010. In part, it was because of growing concerns about her privacy and Facebook's ongoing encouragement of people to share more about themselves with the company, with marketers and with the world.

She says she's been much more productive since leaving.

"I was a typical user, on it once or twice a day," she says. "After a certain point, I sort of resented how it felt like an obligation rather than fun."

Besides Facebook resisters and quitters, there are those who take a break. In some cases, people quit temporarily as they apply for new jobs, so that potential employers won't stumble on photos of their wild nights out drinking. Although Facebook doesn't make it easy to find, it offers an option for suspending accounts (Look for a link under the "Security" tab in "Account Settings.")

Goldschmitt says it takes effort to stay in touch with friends and relatives without Facebook. For instance, she has to make mental notes of when her friends are expecting babies, knowing that they have become so used to Facebook "that they don't engage with us anymore."

"I'm like, `Hmmm, when is nine months?' I have to remember to contact them since they won't remember to tell me when the baby's born."

Neil Robinson, 54, a government lawyer in Washington, says that when his nephew's son was born, pictures went up on Facebook almost immediately. As a Facebook holdout, he had to wait for someone to email photos.

After years of resisting, Robinson plans to join next month, mostly because he doesn't want to lose touch with younger relatives who choose Facebook as their primary means of communication.

But for every Robinson, there is an Edelstein, who has no desire for Facebook and prefers email and postcards.

"I prefer to keep my communications personal and targeted," says Jake Edelstein, 41, a pharmaceutical consultant in New York. "You're getting a message that's written for you. Clearly someone took the time to sit down to do it."

Related posts:
Facebook Seeks Political Ad Dollars
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg "Likes" Chan and Weds 1 day after IPO
You addicted to Facebook ?
Think before you "Like" on Facebook
Yes, Facebook addicts, must get out to socialize more! 
The dark side of Facebook; Link to socially aggressive ... 
Facebook's CEO to keep iron grip after IPO; how to make ... 
Display Ads, Facebook Beating Google In The 'Battle For ... 
The Secrets to Mastering Facebook, Get Ready For F ...  
Make money from Facebook IPO!
The Biggest Cost of Facebook's Growth 

Tech companies 'control the future of news'

Jon Dube, Forbes Contributor Digital Media Executive & Advisor 

Technology companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple “now control the future of news.”

That’s one of the take-aways from the 2012 State of the News Media report, released today by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The news industry, the report says, “finds itself more a follower than leader shaping its business.”

But I think there’s hope. The report touches on a number of opportunities for traditional media in the digital space – areas that are growing rapidly and still up for grabs. Those include targeted advertising, the mobile/tablet space, and digital video.

Winning in these areas will be tough, given the traditional media’s historical inability to rapidly evolve and the head start other companies have on them.

TARGETED ADVERTISING

A good example is the fast-growing opportunity of targeted advertising, where Google and Facebook dominate and news organizations lag far behind.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) report points out that even though targeted advertising is one of the forms of online advertising expected to grow most rapidly, only a few of the top news sites use it.  Meanwhile, the report says, tech companies like Facebook and Google “are using personal data collected over the internet to direct ads to specific consumers to a far greater degree than ever before – and to a far greater degree than most news organizations are capable of.”

While Facebook and Google have taken the lead, news organizations could catch up, if they try. Most have the ability, and at least some data, that would enable them to engage in targeting. A PEJ study of digital advertising at 22 top news sites found that few of them do, however. Of the 22 sites, most did not contain any ads targeted to consumers based on their online behavior, according to the January study. Only three – CNN, The New York Times and Yahoo! News – employed high levels of targeting based on a user’s recent online activity. A handful of others employed limited targeting. (For more, see “Who Advertises on News Sites and How Much Those Ads Are Targeted.”)

While targeted display ads account for just 10% of local online ads, or $1.5 billion, right now, by 2016, they are expected to grow to $14.6 billion and make up more than half the market, according to Borrell Associates.

MOBILE

One of the bright spots in the PEJ report is the research on mobile and tablet usage. Readers spend far more time with news apps on the smartphone and tablet, visit more pages at a time, and return more frequently than they do on conventional computers, according to data from Localytics, a client-based mobile analytics firm. And most importantly, there are signs that mobile news consumption is actually increasing total news consumption – one report from comScore indicates mobile devices increase news site traffic by between 7 and 11 percent.

The good news is mobile and tablet usage are expected to continue skyrocketing. And the ad dollars will shift there as well. Mobile ad spending grew 89% in 2011, to $1.45 billion – and is expected to grow to $10.83 billion by 2016.

News organizations know this is an opportunity, and are investing resources in developing mobile and tablet apps and sites. Still, it’s not clear whether news organizations can capture these dollars. Google already earns more than half of mobile ad dollars in the U.S. and Facebook is expected to move aggressively into the mobile ad market after its IPO.

“Our analysis suggests that news is becoming a more important and pervasive part of people’s lives,” PEJ Director Tom Rosenstiel said, referring to the findings about mobile and tablet usage in particular. “But it remains unclear who will benefit economically from this growing appetite for news.”

RELATED: Mobile, tablet devices increase news consumption

DIGITAL VIDEO

Another big opportunity for news organizations is digital video, because video advertising earns much higher rates – and digital video viewing and advertising is expected to skyrocket in the next few years. While video advertising spend is only $2.02 billion now, it is projected to grow to $7.11 billion by 2015 — which would make it the most lucrative type of online ad after search and banner ads, according to eMarketer.

Despite that, video news and advertising still represents a small fraction of the content on most news sites, aside from those of major broadcasters. In a February PEJ study, none of the top stories on major news sites were in a video format — even on the sites of broadcast news organizations. Stand-alone video ads were also rare, making up only 1.3% of ads on the news websites studied.

The good news is we are starting to see increasing signs of life in digital news video. A few months ago Reuters launched a YouTube channel, dubbed Reuters TV, featuring 10 news shows. The Wall Street Journal has been one of the most aggressive newspapers in the video space, and is now producing more than four hours of video a day.  (Check out WSJ’s fantastic video app for the iPhone and iPad)

One of the more interesting experiments to watch will be The Huffington Post Streaming Network, an online news channel AOL plans to launch later this year that will live-stream news video 12 hours a day. (Disclaimer: I used to be the SVP/GM of News & Information at AOL but left last year).

THE FUTURE

As the digital world becomes more mobile, social and targeted, media companies still have plenty of opportunity. They will have the chance to to attract new audiences and dollars. The question is whether news organizations can move nimbly enough to survive, and thrive.

RELATED: How Facebook, Twitter differ for news consumption

For the latest news from SXSW and general insights on digital media, please follow me on Twitter at @cyberjournalist and visit CyberJournalist.net for the latest digital media headlines.

 Newscribe : get free news in real time