Around three-in-ten Americans are very confident they could fact-check news about COVID-19
Americans’ confidence in checking COVID-19 information aligns closely with their confidence in checking the accuracy of news stories broadly.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Americans’ confidence in checking COVID-19 information aligns closely with their confidence in checking the accuracy of news stories broadly.
Some 61% of U.S. adults say they follow COVID-19 news at both the national and local level equally, and 23% say they pay more attention to local news.
In March 2020, about three-quarters (74%) of public Facebook posts about COVID-19 linked to news organizations, while just 1% linked to health and science sites.
Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.
For some governments, the debt incurred on COVID-19 relief will add to the considerable red ink already on their ledgers before the pandemic.
Those ages 18 to 29 differ from older Americans in their news consumption habits and in their responses to major news events and coverage.
Black adults were much more likely than whites and somewhat more likely than Hispanic adults to frequently discuss the pandemic with others.
The percentage who say journalists have exaggerated the risks of the outbreak has decreased notably in recent weeks.
More than half of these social media news consumers say they have encountered made-up news about COVID-19.
The public’s sense about the pandemic’s impact on the financial well-being of most news organizations is far from clear.
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