Zealous Toward Social Harmony

America says media has bias

April 18, 2011 at 8:27 pm Leave a comment

In a recent survey, about 80 percent of Americans said news coverage has either “a lot” or “some” bias and a majority of those respondents said that the news has more of a liberal slant, according to the Pew Research Center’s Biennial Media Consumption Survey, which polled about 3,000 Americans in June 2010. 
 
In the past 10 years, the number of people who regularly read a daily newspaper has decreased by about 20 percent, according to the study. The survey also suggests that while about 70 percent of those polled in 1965 read a newspaper the day before that the trend has since reportedly dropped by about 25 percent in 2010. 
 
Recently newspapers appear to be losing respect as credible news sources, according to the study. The poll numbers indicate that since 1998, The Wall Street Journal and the daily newspaper that Americans are most familiar with have both reportedly dropped by about 10 percent in regards to their believability rates. 
 
The survey suggests that the number of people who listen to the radio regularly has steadily decreased over the past decade. According to the study, in 1990, 56 percent of those who answered the survey said they listen to the radio, while 43 percent of respondents in 2010 said they still used the radio regularly to get their news. 
 
In the past two decades, magazine readership of Time, U.S. News, or Newsweek has reportedly fallen by about 10 percent, according to the study. Technology has changed the way people find their news, as the number of people who have a cell phone that can receive news updates, for instance a Blackberry or an iPhone, has reportedly increased by nearly 20 percent since 2004. 
Americans receive their news online at a much higher rate today, according to the study. In 1995, only about 5 percent of people who responded said they got their news online every day, while that number reportedly increased by about 30 percent in 2008.  
 
In addition, the most popular news site online in 2010 was reportedly Yahoo. The survey suggests that in the past five years, there has been a decrease in the number of people who receive their news from NBC’s Web site.  
 
Since 1994, people have seemed to consistently “enjoy keeping up with the news” throughout the years, the survey states. The poll numbers indicate that there was reportedly a slight drop in interest during 2000, but it increased over the next six years by seven percent. 
 
The majority of Americans surveyed said they have created a social networking site such as Facebook in the past year and according to the study, about 60 percent of social network users never use that site to receive news, while four percent said they regularly do. Most Americans who responded to the survey last year said that they do not use Twitter to receive news, but of the users that do use Twitter, about 30 percent said they at least sometimes receive news through the Web site.  
 
About half of those polled in 2010 said they regularly watch the local news on television, which is reportedly down 25 percent from 1993, according to the survey. The poll numbers indicate that during the past decade, the number of people who regularly get their news from network and cable news programs has remained consistently around 65 percent; when combining the two types of programs. 
 
There appears to be more people who regularly watch cable networks such as CNN and FOX News than traditional broadcast networks such as CBS News, ABC News, and NBC, according to the study. The survey suggests that the number of people who said they regularly watched the broadcast networks reportedly decreased by about 30 percent since 1993, whereas the number of people who watched cable networks has increased by six percent in the past decade.

Entry filed under: Social Conflict. Tags: Americans polled, CNN, Consumption Survey, Facebook, FOX NEWS, PEW Center, Pew Research Center's Biennial Media Consumption Survey, social networking, Twitter.