24 hour news makes no difference
By Libby
Contrary to the popular notion that 24/7 cable news has dumbed down America, this new Pew survey would indicate that's not really true. Americans are about as informed as they were 20 years ago when cable news began to dominate the newscape. The 24 hour news cycle hasn't engendered any increased interest in politics either.
The breakdowns are interesting although they fall along expected lines. Confirming other surveys, regular The Daily Show viewers are among the best informed while Fox fans are among the least and educational background remains a factor in political awareness. Those who are hooked on politics are the best informed while people who only watch news about Anna Nicole, aren't as aware of what their government is doing.
I thought the most interesting stat was how low the "discussion blog" readers fell on the chart. I assume that means blogs with active communities like Kos and Atrios and also Little Green Footballs and Redstate. I wonder if that's a side effect of spending too much time sticking with like-minded people and not spending enough in seeking out an opposing view?
[Ed. note: Post slightly edited]
Contrary to the popular notion that 24/7 cable news has dumbed down America, this new Pew survey would indicate that's not really true. Americans are about as informed as they were 20 years ago when cable news began to dominate the newscape. The 24 hour news cycle hasn't engendered any increased interest in politics either.
The breakdowns are interesting although they fall along expected lines. Confirming other surveys, regular The Daily Show viewers are among the best informed while Fox fans are among the least and educational background remains a factor in political awareness. Those who are hooked on politics are the best informed while people who only watch news about Anna Nicole, aren't as aware of what their government is doing.
I thought the most interesting stat was how low the "discussion blog" readers fell on the chart. I assume that means blogs with active communities like Kos and Atrios and also Little Green Footballs and Redstate. I wonder if that's a side effect of spending too much time sticking with like-minded people and not spending enough in seeking out an opposing view?
[Ed. note: Post slightly edited]
posted by Libby Spencer at 10:32 AM
3 Comments:
regular The Daily Show viewers are among the best informed while Fox fans are the least
That's not exactly accurate. What the survey found was that FOX News fans were about average in their knowledge. In other words, they didn't answer the most questions correctly, but they weren't in the bottom third, either.
I've seen this misperception about the survey repeated a lot. Just thought you might want to fix that.
I wonder if this is true for the entire 20 years since the 24 hr cable news began.
I still remember when CNN covered more than one topic a day, and was the major news source for not only the US, but the entire world.
Lately it is simply an extension of our gov and therefor 99% propaganda, but it was not always that way
Sharon - you're misreading the post. I was citing the one chart and comparing the numbers between them, not weighing them against the norm. I'll modify it say among but otherwise, I don't think I misstated it.
Anon - I also remember when CNN was a great station that you could depend on for accurate reporting. It's been a long time since that was true. I stopped watching all news programs on TV at this point. The internet is better.
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