Survey Research

Future of the First Amendment Study (2004-2007)

What America's High School Students Think About Their Freedoms

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s High School Initiative seeks to encourage students to use the news media, including student journalism, and to better understand and appreciate the First Amendment. 

As part of the initiative, the foundation funded this “Future of the First Amendment” research project, focusing on the knowledge and attitudes of high school students, teachers and administrators. Specifically, the study seeks to determine whether relationships exist — and, if so, the nature of those relationships – between what teachers and administrators think, and what students do in their classrooms and with news media, and what they know about the First Amendment.

Ultimately, the project surveyed more than 100,000 high school students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators and principals at 544 high schools across the United States.

• Click here to access the Key Findings of the study.
• Click here to access the news release on the study.

Listening & Learning Series (1999, 2002)

Community Indicator Profiles of Knight Foundation Communities and The Nation 

Knight Foundation's Community Indicators Project is a research-based initiative that supports our ongoing effort to learn more about the Knight communities we serve.

To document changes in the quality of life in our communities, we track a few key indicators over time. The project focuses on aspects of community life related to the six grant-making areas our Community Partners Program targets: vitality of cultural life; education; economic development; housing and community development; civic engagement and positive human relations; and the well-being of children and families.

Princeton Survey Research Associates and American Institutes for Research assisted the foundation in the indicators work.

• To browse the reports, click here.

Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study (2002)

How Americans Relate to Classical Music and Their Local Orchestras
Commissioned by 15 American Orchestras and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

We are pleased to share Audience Insight's final report on the Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study, an analysis of how Americans relate to classical music and their local orchestras. We commissioned the work in partnership with 15 American orchestras as part of the second phase of Magic of Music, a decade-long, $10 million initiative to spark innovative ways of strengthening the relationship between orchestras and their audiences. A summary at the beginning synthesizes a great deal of information. The body of the report describes each of the various data collection efforts. In total, the study included interviews with more than 25,000 adults.

Many of the ideas developed in the study are relevant to arts organizations generally, not just orchestras and other classical music ensembles.

All of the study's findings, protocols and electronic data files are publicly available; archived in electronic format (as SPSS data files) at the University of North Carolina's Odum Institute for Research in Social Science.

• Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study