---
title: "How we measured Americans’ engagement in public life"
description: "The Briefing ☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here! In today’s email: 🔥 Featured story A federal judge this week placed a temporary restraining order on Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery after 12 states filed a lawsuit alleging that the deal violates antitrust law. If […]"
date: "2026-07-23"
authors:
  - name: "cstaubin"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/newsletter/campaign/how-we-measured-americans-engagement-in-public-life/"
---

# How we measured Americans’ engagement in public life

July 23, 2026

## The Briefing

---

**☀️ Happy Thursday!** *The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. [**Sign up here!**](https://www.pewresearch.org/sign-up-for-the-briefing/)*

**In today**’**s email:**

- **Featured story:** Judge temporarily pauses Paramount-Warner Bros. merger

- **New from Pew Research Center:** How we measured Americans’ engagement in public life

- **In other news:** EU fines Google $1 billion for anticompetitive practices

- **Looking ahead:** Another ‘pivot to video’ for news organizations?

- **Chart of the week:** Younger and older Americans engage in public life in different ways

### 🔥 **Featured story**

A federal judge this week placed a [temporary restraining order](https://apnews.com/article/warner-bros-paramount-injunction-361fa669019e0053cf6d4513e6e275e3) on **Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery** after 12 states filed a **lawsuit alleging that the deal violates antitrust law.** If the merger goes through, Paramount would control dozens of cable channels as well as theatrical distribution of movies from two studios.

The deal could also bring **two of the largest news brands **in the U.S. under the same ownership. One-third of U.S. adults say they regularly get news from CNN (currently owned by Warner Bros.), while three-in-ten regularly get news from CBS News (owned by Paramount), according to a [2025 Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/feature/news-media-tracker/).

### 🚨 **New from Pew Research Center**

Last week, [we released a report](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2026/07/16/how-americans-are-engaged-with-news-politics-religion-and-civic-life/) from the [Pew-Knight Initiative](https://www.pewresearch.org/collections/pew-knight-initiative/) exploring how Americans engage with news, politics, religion and civic life, including an analysis of four distinct “engagement groups” that make up the U.S. public. A [Decoded blog post](https://www.pewresearch.org/decoded/2026/07/16/how-we-measured-americans-engagement-in-public-life/) explains how we created and analyzed these groups.

### 📌 **In other news**

- **EU fines Google $1 billion **for [anticompetitive practices ](https://www.reuters.com/world/google-hit-with-1-billion-eu-fine-first-under-landmark-rules-2026-07-23/)

- **Federal judge** says **Trump** [must disclose financial information](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/21/trum-bbc-lawsuit-finances) amid his lawsuit against **BBC**

- After networks [chose not to air](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/media/trump-election-address-cbs-abc-nbc-fox-networks) **Trump’s speech** last week, Trump [calls for broadcast licenses to be revoked](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/16/trump-calls-for-revocation-of-abc-nbc-licenses-over-speech-snub-01002580)

- **Trump administration** [shortens length](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/17/trump-administration-foreign-journalist-visas) of **foreign journalist visas**

- **Justice Department** [sought phone records](https://apnews.com/article/new-york-times-justice-department-trump-88f5ceca88dcdd19779e6f61abedf337) of **New York Times** journalists in subpoenas

- **OpenAI **[announces new investment](https://www.axios.com/2026/07/21/openai-local-news-american-journalism-project) in **American Journalism Project,** which supports local news

- **France** [joins growing list](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/world/europe/france-social-media-ban.html) of countries **restricting social media for children**

- **Baltimore Sun** owner [threatens to sue](https://www.semafor.com/article/07/15/2026/baltimore-sun-owner-threatens-to-sue-moore-over-epstein-comments) Maryland governor for defamation over Jeffrey Epstein comments

### 📅 **Looking ahead**

Media observers have recently [noted a trend](https://digiday.com/media/inside-the-newsroom-push-to-turn-print-reporters-into-video-talent/) of **news organizations** – including [The New York Times](https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-times-nyt-editor-joe-kahn-explains-video-push-2026-7) and [The Wall Street Journal](https://pressgazette.co.uk/north-america/wall-street-journal-video-strategy-2026/) – shifting more resources toward creating video content. For some, this has [brought to mind](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/media-pivot-to-video-is-good-publishers-youtube-tv-1236642189/) the largely unsuccessful “pivot to video” of a decade ago, although the dynamics and platforms involved have shifted markedly since then.

Indeed, a [growing share of Americans](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/) get news on video-focused social media sites like **YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.** For instance, 35% of U.S. adults said in 2025 that they regularly get news on YouTube, up from 23% in 2020.

**The most common way Americans prefer to get their news continues to be by watching it: **44% of Americans say this is the case, compared with 37% who prefer reading the news and 19% who like listening to it, according to an [August 2025 survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/11/20/more-americans-prefer-to-watch-the-news-than-read-or-listen-to-it/). These numbers have been fairly steady since 2016.

### 📊 **Chart of the week**

This week’s chart comes from our new report from the [Pew-Knight Initiative](https://www.pewresearch.org/collections/pew-knight-initiative/) on [how Americans engage in public life](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2026/07/16/younger-and-older-americans-engage-in-public-life-in-different-ways/), and how that differs by age.

Our analysis split the U.S. public into four “engagement groups” – Mobilizers, Connectors, Spectators and Outsiders – based on their patterns of participation in activities like voting, donating to charity, attending religious services, joining groups and following the news. We found that **older Americans are more likely than younger adults to be Connectors,** who tend to participate in civic and community life, while **younger Americans are more likely to be Spectators** – those who follow the news and interact with it online but are less engaged in other ways.

### U.S. adults under 30 are more likely to be Spectators, while older people are more often Connectors

*% of U.S. adults who are categorized into each engagement group*

|  | Group | Mobilizers | Connectors | Spectators | Outsiders |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| U.S. adults | U.S. adults | 9 | 28 | 31 | 31 |
| Ages 18-29 | Age | 8 | 15 | 46 | 30 |
| 30-49 | Age | 10 | 24 | 34 | 33 |
| 50-64 | Age | 10 | 31 | 27 | 32 |
| 65+ | Age | 9 | 43 | 19 | 28 |

Note: Engagement groups are based on a cluster analysis that sorted Americans into four groups based on their responses to 19 questions about political activity, civic involvement, religious attendance and attention to news. Respondents who were not categorized into an engagement group are not shown.

Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted July 9-Dec. 5, 2025.
“How Americans Are Engaged With News, Politics, Religion and Civic Life”

*👋 That’s all for this week.*

The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Christopher St. Aubin, Emily Tomasik, Joanne Haner, and Sawyer Reed. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by David Kent.

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