JGeropoulas
The Living Force
A landmark survey of 20,000 Americans took part in the Gallup/Knight poll of Americans' relationship with the news.
While pessimism about the media has deepened across the board over the past two years, it is most pronounced among Republicans.
- Half (49%) of all Americans think the media is very biased. Fifty-six percent say their own news sources are biased, and seven in 10 are concerned about bias in the news others are getting. Eight percent — driven largely by conservatives — say distrusted media are trying to ruin the country.
- Americans think the media is pushing an agenda. Three in four people (74%) worry that owners of media companies are influencing coverage, up five points since 2017. They also suspect that inaccuracies in reporting are purposeful, with 54% believing that reporters misrepresent the facts, and 28% believing reporters make them up entirely.
- Americans are overwhelmed by the speed and volume of information, and the Internet is making it worse. Three in four (72%) Americans think the leading cause of information overload is the mix of news and non-news online, including on social media. Nearly eight in 10 (78%) think misinformation online is the leading problem with news today.
- Americans want more newsroom diversity, but they differ on what kind of diversity is needed. Democrats (49%) and blacks (60%) prioritize racial/ethnic diversity in hiring, while Republicans (51%) and whites (35%) prioritize ideological diversity in journalists’ political views.
- Americans blame the media for political divisions, but they also see the potential for the media to heal these divides. Eighty-four percent of Americans say the media is to blame for political division in this country. Still, 84% also say the media can serve as a healing force.
- Local news plays a key role in civic engagement. People who read and watch local news are more likely to take part in important community issues, like voting. Those who follow local news “very closely” are more than twice as likely than those who do not to participate in local elections—81% versus 35%, respectively.
- Distrust of the media cuts along partisan lines. Seventy-five percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of the media, and 61% say attacks on the media are justified. But only 22% of Democrats have an unfavorable view, and 70% say that attacks are not justified.
“Most Americans have lost confidence in the media to deliver the news objectively,” said Sam Gill, Knight’s senior vice president and chief program officer. “This is corrosive for our democracy."
The report states, low levels of public trust in the media have “left open the possibility for dangerous false narratives to take root in all segments of society.”
NOTE this last line reveals the writer's untenable position that the media tells the truth, so Americans losing confidence in it makes them MORE vulnerable to believing "dangerous false narratives" from alternative sources of information. This begs the question of, why would Americans lose confidence in the media if it had a stellar record of telling the truth?
In fact, just the opposite is true: the media lies have become so blatant and routine that Americans have lost confidence in it, which makes them LESS vulnerable to believing "dangerous false narratives" from the media!
Gallup/Knight Poll: Americans’ concerns about media bias deepen, even as they see it as vital for democracy
Update: On Nov. 9, 2020, Gallup updated the report “American Views 2020: Trust, Media and Democracy,” to correct a methodological…
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