Katerina Eva Matsa is the director of news and information research at Pew Research Center, where she specializes in news habits and attitudes in the U.S. and Europe. She is an expert on the impact of technology and politics on the news and information environment and the use of multiple methodologies, including survey methods, content analysis and computational science.
Matsa has authored various studies, including on local news, social media, news consumption, and political polarization and media habits. She regularly speaks with academic, commercial, non-profit, and government stakeholders in the North America and Europe. Katerina is fluent in both English and Greek and has provided commentary to NPR, the BBC, and the World Economic Forum. She did graduate work in the communications doctoral program at American University, holds an M.Sc. in Politics and Government in the European Union from the London School of Economics, an M.A. in Communication from Georgetown University, and a B.A. degree in Political Science from Panteion University in Athens, Greece.
Black Americans see a range of problems with how Black people are covered in the news. Almost two-thirds of Black adults (63%) say news about Black people is often more negative than news about other racial and ethnic groups. And while few are optimistic that will change in the foreseeable future, many see ways in which that coverage could be improved.
True crime is the most common topic, making up 24% of top-ranked podcasts; 15% of the top podcasts focus on news. The next most common topics are politics and government (10%); entertainment, pop culture and the arts (9%); and self-help and relationships (8%).
Roughly half of U.S. adults say they have listened to a podcast in the past year, including one-in-five who report listening at least a few times a week. Most podcast listeners say this experience includes hearing news, which they largely expect to be mostly accurate. Large shares of listeners say they turn to podcasts for entertainment, learning or having something to listen to while doing something else.
In recent years, several new options have emerged in the social media universe, many of which explicitly present themselves as alternatives to more established social media platforms. Free speech ideals and heated political themes prevail on these sites, which draw praise from their users and skepticism from other Americans.
Local newspapers have been hit particularly hard by the transition to digital news consumption in recent years, with many forced to shutter their doors permanently.
The total number of journalists assigned to state capitol buildings is up 11% since 2014, though figures vary widely by state. And as newspapers employ fewer statehouse reporters, nonprofits are filling much of the void.
