In the more compact Republican media ecosystem, one outlet towers above all others: Fox News. There are five different sources from which at least one-third of Democrats received political or election news in the last week (CNN, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and MSNBC).Īnd in what epitomizes this era of polarized news, none of the 30 sources is trusted by more than 50% of all U.S.
Overall, only one source, Fox News, was used by at least one-third of Republicans for political and election news in the past week. Republicans’ lower trust in a variety of measured news sources coincides with their infrequent use. Only eight generate more distrust than trust – including Fox News, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.Īnother way to look at the diverging partisan views of media credibility: Almost half of the sources included in this report (13) are trusted by at least 33% of Democrats, but only two are trusted by at least 33% of Republicans. Greater portions of Democrats express trust than express distrust in 22 of the 30 sources asked about. Only seven outlets generate more trust than distrust among Republicans – including Fox News and the talk radio programs of hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.įor Democrats, the numbers are almost reversed. Greater portions of Republicans express distrust than express trust of 20 of the 30 sources asked about. While it is impossible to represent the entire crowded media space, the outlets, which range from network television news to Rush Limbaugh to the New York Times to the Washington Examiner to HuffPost, were selected to represent popular media brands across a range of platforms. The study asked about use of, trust in, and distrust of 30 different news sources for political and election news. See the methodology for a description of how the 30 outlets were selected. adults and is also trusted by far more people than distrusted, and another outlet (Politico) that has been heard of by far fewer adults (44%) but is still trusted by more people than distrusted, even though just 13% of the public expresses trust. The two examples below show one outlet (CBS News) that is heard of by the vast majority of U.S. Respondents were first asked if they heard of the source, then if so, whether they trust or distrust it for political and election news and whether they got political and election news there in the past week. adults in 2014 finds that Republicans have grown increasingly alienated from most of the more established sources, while Democrats’ confidence in them remains stable, and in some cases, has strengthened. A comparison to a similar study by the Center of web-using U.S. Moreover, evidence suggests that partisan polarization in the use and trust of media sources has widened in the past five years. These divides are even more pronounced between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. 11, 2019, on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel. At the same time, Democrats and independents who lean Democratic see most of those sources as credible and rely on them to a far greater degree, according to the survey of 12,043 U.S. Overall, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents view many heavily relied on sources across a range of platforms as untrustworthy. enters a heated 2020 presidential election year, a new Pew Research Center report finds that Republicans and Democrats place their trust in two nearly inverse news media environments.
You can also find the questions we asked, and the answers the public provided, in this topline.Īs the U.S.
adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.įor more, see the report’s methodology and this Q&A about the project. To further ensure that each survey reflects a balanced cross section of the nation, the data are weighted to match the U.S. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole population. Recruiting our panelists by phone or mail ensures that nearly all U.S. Everyone who took part is a member of Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. adults in October and November of 2019 and asked whether they had heard of or used any of 30 media sources, chosen so that respondents were asked about a range of news media across different platforms. We examine responses based on party identification to see whether Republicans and Democrats are turning to similar, or different, sources of information In this study, we take a snapshot of the news outlets people rely on and trust for news about politics and the upcoming national elections. As the news media landscape continues to evolve, Americans’ news habits are also changing.