Americans believe the news media play an important role in democracy, particularly in terms of informing the public, yet they do not think the media are fulfilling that role well. Forty-four percent of Americans say the news media are “critical” to democracy, with another 40% saying they are “very important.” At the same time, Americans are nearly twice as likely to say the media support our democracy “very poorly” or “poorly” (43%) as to say they support it “very well” or “well” (28%). Another 27% say the media do an acceptable job in this role.
These results are based on the Knight Foundation/Gallup survey on trust, media and democracy. CONT.
Zacc Ritter & Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup
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