Former Director, Journalism Research
Amy S. Mitchell is director of journalism research at Pew Research Center. She is responsible for the Center’s research related to news and information, including how the public accesses, engages with and creates news, what news organizations are providing and how technology is changing all of these elements. Signature publications include The Modern News Consumer, Political Polarization and Media Habits and the State of the News Media fact sheets, as well as continued studies analyzing the role of social media in news and the use of new research methods to explore emerging trends. Mitchell is an expert in research design, methods evaluation, analysis and writing. She specializes in how technology is changing the flow of news information today and the influence of political identity on news choices. Prior to joining Pew Research Center, Mitchell was a congressional research associate at the American Enterprise Institute, where she researched public policy and the relationship of the press, the public and government. She speaks frequently to national and international audiences, including government leaders, news and information providers, technology companies and fellow researchers. Mitchell also makes regular appearances in the news media to discuss the Center’s research findings.
Across eight Western European countries, people with populist leanings have more negative attitudes about the news media than do those with non-populist views.
U.S. adults are mostly against government action that could limit people’s ability to access and publish information online. There is more support for steps by technology companies.
A global median of 75% want their news media to be unbiased when covering political issues, yet many say the news media do a poor job of reporting on political issues fairly.
Just 5% of more than 3,000 news stories from the first 100 days of the Trump presidency cited a member of the public.
During the early days of the administration, similar storylines were covered across outlets, but the types of sources cited and assessments of Trump’s actions differed.
Overall, 36% of Americans get science news at least a few times a week and three-in-ten actively seek it. Most get science news from general news outlets, but more see specialty sources as being accurate.
Roughly nine-in-ten Democrats say news media criticism keeps leaders in line (sometimes called the news media’s “watchdog role”), while only about four-in-ten Republicans say the same.
This project – using the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, as a case study model – examines the question of how media coverage of a current issue in the news relates to public interest in the issue and its relevance to their own lives.
Many Americans turned to Google to learn about the Flint water crisis. An analysis of aggregated searches over time illustrates how, in today’s digital environment, public interest shifts as a story unfolds.
Large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans say the relationship between the two is unhealthy.
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