Americans See Skepticism of News Media as Healthy, Say Public Trust in the Institution Can Improve
72% of U.S. adults say news organizations do an insufficient job telling their audiences where their money comes from.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
72% of U.S. adults say news organizations do an insufficient job telling their audiences where their money comes from.
A majority of voters said it is very or somewhat important to them to get messages from the presidential campaigns about important issues.
U.S. adults in this group are less likely to get the facts right about COVID-19 and politics and more likely to hear some unproven claims.
Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.
Traffic to digital-native news sites has plateaued in recent years. After rising from 2014 to 2016, it remained steady through 2019.
Those ages 18 to 29 differ from older Americans in their news consumption habits and in their responses to major news events and coverage.
Some 61% of U.S. adults say they follow COVID-19 news at both the national and local level equally, and 23% say they pay more attention to local news.
After three months of news and information, 64% of U.S. adults say the CDC mostly gets the facts about the outbreak right; 30% say the same about President Trump and his administration.
59% of Americans think news organizations do not understand people like them, while a minority – 37% – say they do feel understood.
In March 2020, about three-quarters (74%) of public Facebook posts about COVID-19 linked to news organizations, while just 1% linked to health and science sites.