The economic slowdown affecting the U.S. is worsening an already perilous financial situation for local news organizations, especially local newspapers. While Americans are not overly concerned about the effect of the downturn on local news in their area, they do support financial assistance for local news organizations as part of […] Read more »
Fewer Americans now say media exaggerated COVID-19 risks, but big partisan gaps persist
As Americans continue to give the news media a solid grade overall for coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage who say journalists have exaggerated the risks of the outbreak has decreased notably in recent weeks, according to survey data from Pew Research Center’s Election News Pathway project. CONT. Mark […] Read more »
Fake Claims of Fake News: Political Misinformation, Warnings, and the Tainted Truth Effect
… Our research contributes to the relatively understudied topic of the tainted truth effect. We extend social cognition research on the tainted truth effect to a political setting, where post-event misinformation and information is presented in the form of political news. We first ask, after viewing a political event, how […] Read more »
Destroying trust in the media, science, and government has left America vulnerable to disaster
For America to minimize the damage from the current pandemic, the media must inform, science must innovate, and our government must administer like never before. Yet decades of politically-motivated attacks discrediting all three institutions, taken to a new level by President Trump, leave the American public in a vulnerable position. […] Read more »
Health Institutions Still Rated Best for COVID-19 Response
When it comes to handling the COVID-19 crisis, Americans continue to give their highest approval ratings to healthcare providers and medical experts. Most (78%) continue to approve of their state government’s handling of the crisis, but Americans give much lower ratings on handling the crisis to nationally elected officials such […] Read more »
About 7 in 10 Say They Need to Take Breaks From COVID-19 News
Americans continue to pay close attention to news about the coronavirus outbreak both nationally and locally. In doing so, they rely on a broad mix of media, government and other providers of news, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted April 20-26, 2020, of 10,139 U.S. adults who […] Read more »