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.” […] Read more »
American Views: Trust, Media and Democracy
Technological advances have made it easier for Americans to connect with each other and to find information, including details about the major issues facing the country. But those advances present both challenges and opportunities for individuals and U.S. institutions. … Results of the 2017 Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey on Trust, Media […] Read more »
The Fake News Crisis That Wasn’t
The media often attributes a portion of Donald Trump’s election to fake news — as in the vintage, original meaning of that term: Macedonian teens making bank on preposterous headlines; the Islamization of Texas, Pizza-shop child-sex conspiracies, etc. Such fabrication, commentators worried, reverberated around online echo chambers so resoundingly that […] Read more »
Politics & Polls podcast: Social Research in the Digital Age
From smart phones to social media, digital technology has changed the way we live — allowing for new explorations of human behavior. Big data now enables scientists to process data about human behavior on a scale never before imaginable. In this episode, Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang interview Matt […] Read more »
‘Fake News’: Wide Reach but Little Impact, Study Suggests
Fake news evolved from seedy internet sideshow to serious electoral threat so quickly that behavioral scientists had little time to answer basic questions about it, like who was reading what, how much real news they also consumed and whether targeted fact-checking efforts ever hit a target. … But now the […] Read more »
How Do You Vote? 50 Million Google Images Give a Clue
What vehicle is most strongly associated with Republican voting districts? Extended-cab pickup trucks. For Democratic districts? Sedans. Those conclusions may not be particularly surprising. After all, market researchers and political analysts have studied such things for decades. But what is surprising is how researchers working on an ambitious project based […] Read more »