---
title: "Trump’s relationship with the media"
description: "Plus, Australia proposes social media age requirement, public media to get extra funding for statehouse reporting"
date: "2024-11-07"
authors:
  - name: "Emily Tomasik"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/newsletter/the-briefing/trumps-relationship-with-the-media/"
---

# Trump’s relationship with the media

**☀️ 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:** Trump’s relationship with the media

- **In other news:** Australia proposes banning social media for children under 16

- **Looking ahead:** Public media to get extra funding for statehouse reporting

- **Chart of the week:** A look at news coverage in the first 100 days of Trump's first term

🔥 **Featured story**

**Donald Trump’s reelection** could be [a pivotal point for the U.S. media](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/06/media/trump-reelection-media-credibility-trust/). During the campaign, Trump and his allies kept up their **adversarial stance toward journalists**, threatening to [prosecute those he perceives as enemies](https://apnews.com/article/trump-2024-second-term-prosecute-media-b892fd6f3ce721016eb1176e82aa51c3) and [strip TV networks of their broadcast licenses](https://www.npr.org/2024/10/22/nx-s1-5161480/trump-media-threats-abc-cbs-60-minutes-journalists).

**Republicans’ views toward news organizations have become much more negative** since Trump’s first presidential campaign. Four-in-ten Republicans and GOP-leaning independents now say that they have some or a lot of [trust in national news organizations](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/16/republicans-young-adults-now-nearly-as-likely-to-trust-info-from-social-media-as-from-national-news-outlets/), down from 70% who said this in 2016. Republicans also were much less likely than Democrats to say the news media did a good job [covering both the 2020 and 2024 elections](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/10/10/how-americans-feel-about-election-coverage/#broad-assessments-of-election-coverage).

📌 **In other news**

- **Australia **[announces plans to ban social media](https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/australia-proposes-ban-social-media-those-under-16-2024-11-06/) for children under 16

- **New York Times** tech workers [go on strike one day before election](https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/11/04/new-york-times-tech-strike-walkout/)

- **Trump campaign** [revokes journalists’ election night press credentials](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/05/media/trump-revokes-journalists-election-night-credentials/) after critical coverage

- A look at [**Trump's media strategy**](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/business/media/trump-media-strategy-podcasts.html) after his election victory

- **Jeff Bezos** [congratulates Trump on his election victory](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/business/media/jeff-bezos-trump.html) after **blocking Washington Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris**

- **Owner of Los Angeles Times** [cites candidates' support for Israel](https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/los-angeles-times-patrick-soon-shiong-endorsement-decision) as reason for the paper’s non-endorsement in email to senior staff

- A look at Israel's **Channel 14**, [the ultranationalist TV network](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/03/ultranationalist-tv-channel-14-most-watched-news-source-israel) that is quickly gaining prominence

📅 **Looking ahead**

The **Corporation for Public Broadcasting** is [providing additional funding](https://current.org/2024/11/how-stations-are-enhancing-statehouse-journalism-with-cpb-funding/) to public media in seven states, including Wyoming, Colorado and Nevada, for **state government reporting**. The support from CPB will help newsrooms hire statehouse journalists, broaden areas of coverage and build collaborations with other outlets.

A [2022 Center study](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2022/04/05/total-number-of-u-s-statehouse-reporters-rises-but-fewer-are-on-the-beat-full-time/) found that the total number of reporters assigned to the 50 state capitols increased by 8% between 2014 and 2022. However, **fewer reporters were covering state governments full time**. Out of the 1,724 statehouse reporters identified by the 2022 study, just under half (850, or 49%) reported on the statehouse full time.

📊 **Chart of the week**

After Donald Trump's reelection, we look back at a chart from a [2017 Pew Research Center study](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2017/10/02/covering-president-trump-in-a-polarized-media-environment/) that analyzed news coverage of the first 100 days of Trump’s first term from a variety of major news outlets, including newspaper websites, radio and TV broadcasts, and digital news outlets. During that time, only 11% of stories analyzed delivered an overall positive assessment of the Trump administration’s words or actions, while four times as many (44%) offered a negative assessment. The remaining 45% were neither positive nor negative.

![Stories about Trump](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/10/PJ_2017.10.02_Trump-First-100-Days_0-07.png?w=309)

*👋 That's all for this week. *

The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by David Kent.

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