Multi-section Reports

The State of the News Media fact sheets use a range of different methodologies to study the health of the U.S. news industry, including custom analysis of news audience behavior, secondary analysis of industry data and direct reporting to solicit information unavailable elsewhere.

Younger adults in eight Western European countries are about twice as likely as older adults to get news online than from TV. They also are more critical of the media's performance and coverage of key issues.

The politically aware, digitally savvy and those more trusting of the news media fare better in differentiating factual statements from opinions.

Across eight Western European countries, people with populist leanings have more negative attitudes about the news media than do those with non-populist views.

U.S. adults are mostly against government action that could limit people’s ability to access and publish information online. There is more support for steps by technology companies.

An analysis of 9.7 million tweets reveals that news organizations played the largest role in which content was linked to in discussions about immigration compared with other information providers.

During the early days of the administration, similar storylines were covered across outlets, but the types of sources cited and assessments of Trump’s actions differed.

Overall, 36% of Americans get science news at least a few times a week and three-in-ten actively seek it. Most get science news from general news outlets, but more see specialty sources as being accurate.

Today, 67% of U.S. adults get at least some news on social media. Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat serve as sources of news for more of their users, though Facebook still leads as a source of news for Americans.

Roughly nine-in-ten Democrats say news media criticism keeps leaders in line (sometimes called the news media’s “watchdog role”), while only about four-in-ten Republicans say the same.