“Dysfunctional” is a word often applied to the federal government shutdown. If only we had a functional understanding of the causes of dysfunction. Many explanations offered point to the effects of increased income inequality on political institutions. But increased inequality may have even more direct effects, undermining trust and driving […] Read more »
Political Trust in ‘American People’ at New Low
Americans’ trust in “the American people” to make judgments about political issues facing the country has declined each year since 2009 and, at 61%, is down nearly 20 percentage points from its recent peak in 2005. Still, that exceeds the 46% of Americans who trust the “men and women … […] Read more »
Distrust in Media Hits New High
Americans’ distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. … This year’s decline in media trust is driven by independents and Republicans. The 31% and 26%, respectively, […] Read more »
Further Decline in Credibility Ratings for Most News Organizations
For the second time in a decade, the believability ratings for major news organizations have suffered broad-based declines. In the new survey, positive believability ratings have fallen significantly for nine of 13 news organizations tested. [cont.] Pew Read more »
Confidence in Television News Drops to New Low
Americans’ confidence in television news is at a new low by one percentage point, with 21% of adults expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in it. This marks a decline from 27% last year and from 46% when Gallup started tracking confidence in television news in […] Read more »
How do you tell when the news is biased? It depends on how you see yourself
… Many people have tried to define what media bias is, and attempted to measure it, but I want to try to answer a different question here: not how we can decide if the news is biased, but how each of us actually does decide — and what it means […] Read more »