• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. media>

News media's vital to democracy, Americans say; then a partisan divide yawns

Bill Theobald
August 07, 2020
Media criticism
Tero Vesalainen/Getty Images

A massive new survey on media and democracy paints an unflattering picture in which the public trust in mainstream journalism is declining as perceived bias is growing.

The finding most optimistic for the preservation of a functional democracy: Five in six Americans, 84 percent, describe the news media as highly important to providing accurate information and holding the powerful accountable.

But a closer look at the numbers, released Thursday, shows something deeply problematic for civil society: a huge chasm in public attitudes toward the media, with Democrats generally favorable and Republicans openly hostile.


Perhaps this should not be surprising given the confluence of the continuous, precipitous decline of the traditional media, particularly newspapers, and four years of President Trump making "fake news" a household term and carrying out an endless assault on what he has called "the true enemy of the people."

The study by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, marrying the famous polling company and a philanthropy created with media company profits, involved more than 20,000 mail surveys between November and February. The enormity of the sample means the margin of error in the results is just 1 percentage point.

The major topline results include:

  • An overwhelming 86 percent believe there's a great deal (49 percent) or a fair amount (37 percent) of political bias in news coverage.
  • Only 31 percent have a favorable view of the news media, a share 15 points smaller than those who have an unfavorable view. The rest said they don't see things either way.
  • While almost half of Americans (49 percent) view the role of journalism as critical to democracy and a third (35 percent) says it's very important, just 13 percent say it's not important or not important at all.
  • At the same time, while 54 percent said the media was supporting our democracy to an acceptable degree or better, 43 percent said news organizations are doing a poor job on that score.

A look at the partisan breakdown provides a starkly different view. While nearly three-quarters of Republicans see a great deal of bias in the media, only a little more a quarter of Democrats see a great deal of bias.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Similarly, 43 percent of Republicans have a very unfavorable view of the media — but only 5 percent of Democrats feel that way. Looked at another way, more than half of Democrats have a very favorable or somewhat favorable view of the media while just over 1 out of 10 Republicans feel that way.

Large bipartisan majorities did rate as a "major problem" that owners of news outlets were attempting to influence the way stories are reported (74 percent); that news organizations are being too dramatic or sensational in order to attract more readers (70 percent); and that there was too much bias in the selection of what stories news organizations cover or don't cover (70 percent).

And there was general agreement across the political spectrum that democracy only works well when people stay informed on the news.

But when asked to rate the success of the media in carrying out its democracy-building role, the huge partisan divide again appears.

Overall, less than a third said the media did well or very well at "holding leaders in politics, business, and other institutions accountable for their actions." But among Democrats 43 percent said that while only 14 percent of Republicans did.

Again, less than a third gave the media high marks for "making sure Americans have the knowledge that they need to be informed about public affairs." But 46 percent of Democrats said so, while only 14 percent of Republicans did.

The survey found a close association between following the news and voting with more than three-fourths of those who said they closely follow local news also saying they always or nearly always vote.

The proliferation of media, particularly online, leaves many overwhelmed, the survey found. Too much, too fast makes it harder, not easier, for them to stay informed, they said.

In response to this media flood, 41 percent said they only pay attention to one or two trusted sources.

And 17 percent say they have just stopped paying attention to the news altogether.

From Your Site Articles
  • It's our duty to combat pandemic's digital disinformation - The Fulcrum ›
  • Democracy requires us to work on our biases — all of them - The ... ›
  • Hey, NY Times: Don't endorse two for president. Don't even pick one. ›
  • Say hello to the Daily Centrist - The Fulcrum ›
  • A new, unifying form of news can help fix a broken democracy - The Fulcrum ›
  • A dozen issues where partisan gridlock could be broken - The Fulcrum ›
  • Hey, journalists. Does the public trust you? - The Fulcrum ›
  • We all influence one another with our own biases - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Media Bias - News Literacy: News Views & Fact Checking ... ›
  • Gallup/Knight Poll: Americans' concerns about media bias deepen ... ›
  • There is no liberal media bias in which news stories political ... ›
  • Media Bias/Fact Check - Search and Learn the Bias of News Media ›
media

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Our Staff
40m

Steward leadership

David L. Nevins
5h

Sharing a common fate

Kevin Frazier
5h

Flame retardants in your earbuds? Toxic chemicals in homes? Left and right are sick of It.

Joan Blades
John Gable
31 January

What can replace religion for peace of mind and shared moral values?

Daniel O. Jamison
31 January

Part IV: Reforming constitutional convention campaigns

J.H. Snider
30 January
Videos

Video: How the baby boom changed American politics

Our Staff

Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Our Staff

Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Our Staff

Video: Meet the citizen activists championing primary reform

Our Staff

Video: Veterans for Political Innovation - Who we are

Our Staff

Video: Want to fight polarization? Take a vacation!

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Our Staff
40m

Podcast: Separating news from noise

Our Staff
30 January

Podcast: Deepening democracy in the states

Our Staff
27 January

Podcast: How the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack impacted politics

Our Staff
26 January
Recommended
Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Podcasts
Steward leadership

Steward leadership

Big Picture
Sharing a common fate

Sharing a common fate

Big Picture
Video: How the baby boom changed American politics

Video: How the baby boom changed American politics

Flame retardants in your earbuds? Toxic chemicals in homes? Left and right are sick of It.

Flame retardants in your earbuds? Toxic chemicals in homes? Left and right are sick of It.

Big Picture
What can replace religion for peace of mind and shared moral values?

What can replace religion for peace of mind and shared moral values?

Big Picture