Americans Think ‘Fake News’ Is More Prevalent Than Ever
The most recent iteration of a multiyear project conducted by Gallup and the Knight Foundation on “Trust, Media and Democracy” shows that Americans are increasingly likely to believe that “fake news” is a real and damaging phenomenon.
The latest version of the poll, conducted between Nov. 8, 2019, and Feb. 16, 2020, shows a four-point increase in the number of respondents who perceive a heavy bias in political media coverage compared to the last Gallup/Knight survey, which was released in 2018. . .
Republicans perceive media bias at a much greater rate than their Democratic counterparts: A whopping 94 percent of self-identified Republicans believe the media is biased compared to 79 percent of Democrats. Republicans are also much more willing to acknowledge that their primary news sources are compromised: 63 percent of Republicans are willing to acknowledge bias in their primary source of news coverage, compared to just 46 percent of Democrats.
Nearly three out of every four respondents (74 percent) believe “owners of news outlets attempting to influence the way stories are reported” is “a major problem,” a five-point increase from the 2017 survey. The number of respondents who agree that the media is “being too dramatic or too sensational in order to attract more readers or viewers” stands at 70 percent, up from 66 percent in 2017. (Read more from “Americans Think ‘Fake News’ Is More Prevalent Than Ever” HERE)
Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE
