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News Habits & Media

featureJun 9, 2025

Americans now navigate a quickly changing information environment, with a wide variety of news sources across many different platforms and channels. Explore data on how Americans use, trust and distrust 30 major news sources with our interactive tool.

Accompanying report: The Political Gap in Americans’ News Sources

short readMay 29, 2025

data essayMay 13, 2025

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News Habits & Media

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reportNov 15, 2012

Low Marks for the 2012 Election

Overview The 2012 presidential campaign was a frustrating experience for many voters, who say the campaign was more negative than usual and had less discussion of issues than in most previous campaigns. Both Obama and Romney get mixed grades for the job they did reaching out to voters, as do campaign consultants, the press and […]
reportNov 6, 2012

Hurricane Sandy and Twitter

How did people use Twitter during Hurricane Sandy and what did they tweet about? A new study from PEJ shows that over half of the conversation on and around the hurricane’s landfall was news, information, photos and videos of and about the super storm.
reportNov 5, 2012

More Interest in Hurricane Sandy than Election

Overview Just over half of the public (53%) say they followed news about Hurricane Sandy and the storm’s impact very closely last week, outpacing interest in the 2012 presidential election (47% very closely) and news about the U.S. economy (38% very closely). The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & […]
reportNov 2, 2012

Winning the Media Campaign 2012

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have both received more negative than positive coverage from the news media in the eight weeks since the conventions, but Obama has had an edge overall, a new PEJ study finds. The report also examines how the candidates fared in different media outlets, the tone of the conversation on social media and offers comparisons to 2008 campaign coverage.
reportOct 25, 2012

Internet Gains Most as Campaign News Source but Cable TV Still Leads

As the presidential election enters the last lap, where are people going to learn about the campaign and the candidates? A new PEJ survey finds an increasingly diverse ecosystem for political news.
reportOct 23, 2012

Republicans Increasingly Positive About Campaign

Overview Republicans express increasingly positive opinions about the presidential campaign and are now about as likely as Democrats to view the campaign as interesting and informative. In early September, shortly after the party conventions, far more Democrats than Republicans said the campaign was interesting and informative. The new survey by the Pew Research Center for […]
reportOct 11, 2012

One-in-Ten ’Dual-Screened’ the Presidential Debate

Overview The vast majority of Americans say they followed coverage of the first presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, including 56% who followed the debate live. Most of these real-time viewers watched on television, but 11% of live debate watchers were “dual screeners,” following coverage on a computer or mobile device at the […]
reportOct 9, 2012

The State of the 2012 Election — Mobile Politics

Registered voters on both sides of the political spectrum are using their cell phones to get campaign news, share their views about the candidates and interact with others about political issues
reportOct 5, 2012

Social Media Debate Sentiment Less Critical of Obama than Polls and Press Are

The reaction to the first presidential debate was better for Barack Obama in social media than in the traditional press, where the consensus was that Mitt Romney had won handily. But the sentiment differed by social media platform and generally criticism was more plentiful than praise.
reportOct 1, 2012

Romney’s ’47%’ Comments Criticized, But Many Also Say Overcovered

Overview Mitt Romney’s statement that 47% of the public is dependent on government has registered strongly with voters. Fully two-thirds of voters (67%) correctly identify Romney as the candidate who made the comments. Among those aware that Romney made comments about the “47%”, more than half (55%) have a negative reaction while just 23% react […]

Signature Reports

reportNov 18, 2024

Pew Research Center illustration for America's News Influencers report; photos via Getty Images

This study explores the makeup of the social media news influencer universe, including who they are, what content they create and who their audiences are.

reportJun 12, 2024

A Facebook livestream of a naturalization ceremony held at New York City's Public Library for the Performing Arts in on April 28, 2021.

X is still more of a news destination than these other platforms, but the vast majority of users on all four see news-related content.

reportMay 7, 2024

Reporters question a defense attorney at Harris County Criminal Courts at Law in Houston on March 26, 2024. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

More Americans now prefer to get local news online, while fewer turn to TV or print. And most say local news outlets are important to their community.

reportMar 19, 2024