Americans Struggle to Navigate the Modern Media Landscape

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the information available to news consumers has expanded greatly in recent decades, Americans believe the media landscape is becoming harder to navigate. They say the increase in the information available today makes it harder (58%), rather than easier (38%), to be well-informed because people have to sort through lots of information to determine what is true or important.

This finding comes from a new Gallup/Knight Foundation survey on trust, media and democracy. The large-scale mail survey of more than 19,000 U.S. adults was conducted Aug. 4-Oct. 2, 2017.

Americans' sense of information overload varies by partisanship. Less than half of Democrats (47%) say the increase in available information makes staying well-informed harder, whereas clear majorities of Republicans (69%) and independents (61%) believe it does.

Perceived Bias Blurs Pursuit of Objective Facts

Americans are also more likely to say it is hard to sort out the facts in news reporting than they were in the past. Fifty percent of U.S. adults believe that, despite some media bias, enough news sources exist to allow people to sort out the facts, whereas 47% say there is so much bias it is often difficult to determine what is true. Americans' confidence that people can discern the truth is down from 66% in a 1984 mail survey conducted by MORI Research for the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

The trend toward Americans' saying it is harder to sort out the facts is consistent with their increased perceptions of news media bias.

Seventy-two percent of Democrats, compared with 46% of independents and 31% of Republicans, are confident that enough sources exist for people to discern the facts. Education also makes a difference in perceived ability to navigate political bias in the media. Those with a postgraduate education are most likely to say enough sources exist to allow people to sort out the facts (61%), followed by college graduates (52%) and those with less than a college degree (47%).

	Enough sources to sort out facts	So much bias, difficult to sort out facts
	%	%
Party identification
Democrats	72	26
Independents	46	51
Republicans	31	67
Education
Postgraduate	61	38
College degree only	52	46
Some college	47	50
High school or less	48	49
Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey, Aug. 4-Oct. 2, 2017

Notably, these educational differences are apparent among Democrats and independents but not Republicans. Democrats and independents with college degrees are roughly 10 percentage points more likely than Democrats and independents without college degrees to believe there are enough news sources available for people to sort out the facts.

	Enough sources to sort out facts	So much bias, difficult to sort out facts
	%	%
Democrats
College graduate	78	20
College nongraduate	68	29
Independents
College graduate	54	44
College nongraduate	42	55
Republicans
College graduate	30	68
College nongraduate	31	67
Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey, Aug. 4-Oct. 2, 2017

Roughly One in Four Americans Are Very Confident News Media Navigators

When asked about their own ability to distinguish fact from opinion in news reporting, most Americans are confident but not overly so. Roughly one-quarter of adults, 27%, describe themselves as "very confident" and another 49% say they are "somewhat confident."

Democrats and postgraduates are most likely to say they are very confident in their ability to distinguish fact from opinion. Four in 10 Democrats with a college degree are very confident. Again, education does not influence Republicans' level of confidence, which overall is slightly lower than Democrats' confidence.

	Very confident	Somewhat confident	Not too confident	Not confident at all
	%	%	%	%
U.S. adults	27	49	17	3
Party identification
Democrats	31	50	13	2
Independent	25	50	18	4
Republican	24	48	21	5
Education
Postgraduate	35	49	12	2
College graduate only	30	50	15	3
Some college	26	50	17	4
High school or less	23	49	20	4
Party by education
Democratic college gradudate	41	48	9	1
Democratic college nongraduate	26	52	15	2
Independent college graduate	30	50	15	3
Independent college nongraduate	23	50	19	5
Republican college graduate	24	51	19	4
Republican college nongraduate	23	46	22	5
Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey, Aug. 4-Oct. 2, 2017

Those with stronger ideological views -- who describe themselves as "very liberal" (45%) or "very conservative" (41%) -- are much more likely than other ideological groups to be very confident in their ability to separate fact from opinion. By comparison, 33% of those who describe their views as "liberal," 23% of those who are "conservative" and 23% of "moderates" are very confident.

Implications

Americans are less confident now than they were three decades ago that people can sort out the facts in news stories, perhaps because of their increased perceptions of bias in news reporting. And rather than helping citizens by making more sources available to them, Americans see the increase in available information making matters worse, presumably because there is more news, much of it biased, to sort through.

Both of these findings -- Americans' skepticism that more information is better and their expanded perceptions of bias -- are significant in that they can contribute to an erosion of media trust. Nevertheless, Americans continue to believe the media can serve as a vital democratic institution that informs citizens and can help them participate fully and effectively in the democratic process.

Read the full Gallup/Knight Foundation report "Americans' Views: Trust, Media and Democracy."