How we measured Americans’ engagement in public life
This piece explains how researchers measured Americans’ engagement in public life using multimode surveys, address-based sampling and cluster analysis.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Read our research on:
Journalism
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How Americans Are Engaged With News, Politics, Religion and Civic Life
Americans’ engagement with others is not one-dimensional. Instead, they sort into four distinct groups that reflect different patterns of participation in society.
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Which Americans are most likely to have spoken with a local journalist?
About a quarter of Americans have spoken with a local journalist, with education, income, race and community attachment linked to higher rates of interaction.
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Americans say keeping up with key news topics is crucial. But fewer say they’re highly informed themselves
Democrats and Republicans broadly show similar patterns in how they evaluate the importance of staying informed about various topics.
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What Americans think it takes to be a good news consumer
One of the most common things Americans associate with being a good news consumer is a sense of skepticism or discernment.
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What types of news do Americans seek out or happen to come across?
About half of U.S. adults (49%) say they mostly get news because they happen to come across it, up from 39% in 2019.
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Local News Fact Sheet
Americans’ attention to local news has declined since 2016. Explore how people get local news today, shifting from TV and print to digital sources.
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Where do Americans turn first for information about breaking news?
When a breaking news event happens, 36% of U.S. adults say they typically turn first to their preferred news organization to get more information.
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8 facts about Americans and TikTok
In the wake of TikTok’s deal to make its U.S. operations backed largely by non-Chinese investors, here’s what we know about Americans and TikTok.
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Email Newsletters as a Source of News
Three-in-ten U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get news from newsletters, but many don’t read most of the newsletters they get.
