Public More Critical of Press, But Goodwill Persists
Online Newspaper Readership Countering Print Losses
Released: June 26, 2005
people-press.org
Summary of Findings
Public attitudes toward the press, which have been on a downward track for years, have become more negative in several key areas. Growing numbers of people question the news media's patriotism and fairness. Perceptions of political bias also have risen over the past two years.
Yet despite these criticisms, most Americans continue to say that they like mainstream news outlets. By wide margins, more Americans give favorable than unfavorable ratings to their daily newspaper (80%-20%), local TV news (79%-21%), and cable TV news networks (79%-21%), among those able to rate these organizations. The margin is only slightly smaller for network TV news (75%-25%).
In fact, the favorable ratings for most categories of news organizations surpass positive ratings for President Bush and major political institutions the Supreme Court, Congress, and the two major political parties. Favorable ratings for daily newspapers, local TV news and network TV news have all remained fairly stable since July 2001, even as public attitudes toward the news media have declined. The exception to this pattern are large, nationally influential newspapers, such as the Washington Post and New York Times, whose favorable ratings have declined markedly.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 8-12 among 1,464 Americans, shows increasing politicization of attitudes toward the news media. Republicans, already more critical than Democrats of the press, have become even more so. Growing numbers of Republicans see the press as too critical of America and hurting democracy. Still, even majorities of Republicans continue to express favorable views of most major news sources.
This is not the first time a Pew Research Center survey has shown the public to be broadly critical of the press, yet still favorable in its overall view of news organizations themselves. In fact, the public has long been two-minded in its views of the news media faulting the press in a variety of ways, while still valuing the news and appreciating the product of news outlets.
In the current polling, those who expressed favorable opinions of daily newspapers, local TV news, network news and cable news struck similar themes in explaining their positive views of these news outlets. Respondents most often cited the fact that they are able to get the news and information they seek in a timely fashion; the breadth of coverage; and the ability to stay informed about a wide range of news developments, both locally and globally.
The latest Pew survey on the news media finds that the sustained growth in online news consumption has implications for overall newspaper readership. Overall, a third of Americans below age 40 cite the internet as their main source of news, and many of these people are reading newspapers online. Consequently, while people under age 50 remain far less likely to read a print newspaper than are older people, they are turning to local and national newspapers online in fairly significant numbers.
The poll also finds that the public makes broad distinctions between fact-based and opinion-oriented news outlets. Roughly six-in-ten Americans (61%) say local TV news programs mostly report facts about recent news developments, rather than opinions; smaller majorities see daily newspapers (54%) and nightly network TV news (53%) as mostly fact-based.
Though cable news networks are no more likely to be described as opinion-oriented than network evening news programs, fewer (45%) describe them as mostly reporting the facts. That also is the case for major national newspapers; while three-in-ten see them as mostly presenting their opinions, 45% say they mostly report the facts.
On the opinion side of the fact-opinion spectrum are talk radio shows and internet news blogs. Just 10% say talk radio shows are mostly fact-oriented; 68% say they mostly give their opinions about the news. Far fewer Americans are familiar with news blogs than other news sources, but on balance, more say blogs are opinion-oriented than fact-based (by 32%-20%). |
