The findings from a survey by the Pew Research Center presented in "Trends 2005," reported that beliefs about national security are twice as important to the American public as economic, social or religious values in shaping people's partisan identification. Five years ago, these national security attitudes barely registered as a correlate of partisanship.

Drill down to top Online music destinations with demographics and advertising technologies.

According to full-year forecasts released by TNS Media Intelligence, advertising spending is expected to increase 5.1 percent in 2005 to $150.5 billion, This increase follows the estimated growth of 10.6 percent in 2004, as the U.S. economy continues to show signs of stability. Steven J. Fredericks, president, TNS Media Intelligence, said "É This positive growth is a strong indicator regarding the overall state of the ad industry. As the economic recovery continues, all leading categories of media will see improvement in advertising spending, with the Internet, Spanish language television and Cable Network TV showing the strongest year over year gains."

According to the second AARP survey on public attitudes toward Social Security and private accounts, conducted in January 2005 by AARP and Roper Public Affairs, 62% of Americans have a favorable view of Social Security, and two-thirds support keeping the program as close to the current system as possible.

Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, said that data gathered from their recent syndicated reports shows that "adults with a household income of $75,000, in the markets surveyed, spent between 6 and 8 hours with the media on an average weekday. In almost all markets, radio and television occupied 3 to 5 hours of the 6 to 8 hours total per adult."

If you "remembered" last Monday, here's how you measured up. According to Hitwise, the market share of total U.S. Internet visits to flowers and gifts sites was already 81 percent higher on Feb.10, 2005 versus the same day last year. Bill Tancer, vice president of research, Hitwise, said "Traffic to flowers and gifts sites exceeds last year's levels as Valentine's Day ecommerce goes mainstream."

According to a new study from ACNielsen consumers made fewer trips to traditional grocery stores in 2004 as they sought greater savings, variety or convenience in other retail outlets. The "Channel Blurring" study showed that the average American consumer made 69 trips to the grocery store in 2004, down from 72 in 2003 and 92 in 1995, the first year of the ACNielsen annual analysis of consumer shopping patterns.

According to the Vertis proprietary Customer Focus® 2005 Automotive Direct Marketing study, 73 percent of adults who plan to purchase a new vehicle responded to automotive direct mail they received. Thérèse Mulvey, vice president, marketing research, at Vertis, said "Consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about the products and services they buy, which causes them to turn to various media for information."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as analyzed by American Demographics, while household spending has increased over the last 50 years, spending priorities have changed. More than half goes to the house and car at the expense of food and alcohol, almost five times as much for education, and entertainment as popular as ever.

A new report from Arbitron, Black Radio Today, quoted here, offers a glimpse into the world of radio and its black listeners. Arbitron's Radio Station Information Database indicates that there are more than 13,800 radio stations broadcasting around the country, of which more than 1,100 are black-formatted stations. The report says that radio is a medium of steady popularity among the nation's more than 22 million black Americans, ages 18+.