Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Two Decades of American News Preferences

by Michael J. Robinson, special to the Pew Research Center

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Although the size and scope of the American news media have changed dramatically since the 1980s, audience news interests and preferences have remained surprisingly static. Of the two major indices of interest that are the focus of this report — overall level of interest in news and preferences for various types of news — neither has changed very much. This has been especially true for news preferences; Americans continue to follow — or to ignore — the same types of stories now as they did two decades ago. News “tastes,” measured among 19 separate categories of news, have barely shifted at all: Disaster News and Money News continue to be of greatest interest to the U.S. public; Tabloid News and Foreign News remain the least interesting.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents