How Americans Navigated the News in 2020: A Tumultuous Year in Review
Americans inhabited different information environments, with wide gaps in how they viewed the election and COVID-19.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Americans inhabited different information environments, with wide gaps in how they viewed the election and COVID-19.
In studying voters’ views of election fraud, we found these views varied by whether people got their news from the Trump campaign.
U.S. adults in this group are less likely to get the facts right about COVID-19 and politics and more likely to hear some unproven claims.
With Election Day six months away, 52% of Americans are paying fairly close or very close attention to news about the presidential candidates.
Nearly three out of four U.S. adults say that, in general, it’s important for journalists to function as watchdogs over elected officials.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to have stopped discussing political and election news with someone: 50% vs. 41%, respectively.
Americans who closely follow political news are more likely to have confidence that the public will accept election results. And that’s true across party boundaries.
Concern is highest among people who follow political news most closely, older adults and those who display more knowledge about politics in general.
Responses to cable news coverage and the pandemic vary notably among Americans who identify Fox News, MSNBC or CNN as their main source of political news.
Both Democrats and Republicans express far more distrust than trust of social media sites as sources for political and election news.
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