adrina
Heretic
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2017
- Posts
- 25,430
source
Overview:
And this little tidbit:
So even though the media has the exact same accuracy perception percentage it did from 2003, the people that make up that 37% have shifted quite a bit along partisan lines.
Overview:
- 14% of Republicans believe news media get the facts straight
- 62% of Democrats agree
- College-educated are most likely to find news media credible
Just over a third of Americans (37%) in 2017 say news organizations generally get the facts straight, unchanged from the last time Gallup asked this question in 2003. But despite the apparent stability in U.S. adults' perceptions of news media accuracy, major partisan shifts in beliefs on this topic have emerged over the past 14 years. Republicans' trust in the media's accuracy has fallen considerably, while Democrats' opinions on the matter have swung in the opposite direction.
This year, only 14% of Republicans believe the news media get the facts straight, down 21 points from 2003. This seems at least partly attributable to President Donald Trump's frequent invective toward the media. But last year, before Trump became president, a separate measure showed a general loss of trust in the U.S. news media among Republicans over the previous 15 years, suggesting that Trump may be taking advantage of shifting GOP attitudes at least as much as creating them.
And this little tidbit:
Nearly three-fourths of Democrats (72%) with a college degree say news organizations are generally accurate, slightly more than the 63% of Democrats who attended but did not graduate college and well above the 48% of Democrats without any college education who say the same. Independents follow a similar pattern -- those with a college education are more likely than those without a college degree to say news organizations generally get the facts straight. However, education appears to make little difference in Republicans' beliefs about the credibility of news media. Even among Republicans with at least a college degree, 18% say the media get the facts straight -- only slightly higher than the 12% of Republicans without a college degree who say the same.
More broadly, the finding that a solid majority of the country believes major news organizations routinely produce false information is one with potentially significant consequences. As one example, these views may be related to Americans' diminished trust in most major U.S. institutions and rising cynicism about the U.S. political system and elected officials.
So even though the media has the exact same accuracy perception percentage it did from 2003, the people that make up that 37% have shifted quite a bit along partisan lines.