Republicans More Likely Than Democrats to Use Talk Radio for News

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- There has been a renewed focus on the role of news media in the political process after the Republican victories in last November's midterm elections. Some Democratic politicians and party activists have blamed the Republican sweep of the House and Senate, at least in part, on what they believe is the effectiveness of conservatives in establishing and reinforcing their message by virtue of more concentrated use of media sources such as radio talk shows, the Fox News Channel, and selected newspapers. The New York Times recently ran a front-page article reviewing Democrats' plans to counter the influence of conservative talk-show hosts. There has been discussion of Democratic intentions to counter what they perceive to be the conservative tilt of the successful Fox News Channel, perhaps by attempting to start a new cable news network.

The conventional wisdom seems to be that conservatives and Republicans have a well-oiled system by which they hone and push out a message on the news topic of the day, leaving liberals in a more amorphous, less well-organized and confused situation. Democratic politicians and activists in particular argue that conservative radio talk-show hosts (Rush Limbaugh being the most prominent) provide the means for conservatives and Republicans to develop a more disciplined approach to stimulating and encouraging their base to turn out in elections.

Republican and Democratic Differences in Use of News Media

A December 2002 Gallup Poll updated a measure of the frequency with which Americans say they use a series of 10 different sources of news and information. The question lumps together specific media outlets into broad categories (e.g., CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC are all put together in one category of "cable news channels"), so it is not possible to analyze the influence of specific news organizations. We can, however, use the responses to get a good feel for the ways in which Democrats, independents, and Republicans differ in their use of these broad categories of news and information sources.

This table shows the percentage of Republicans, independents, and Democrats who report getting news and information from each of these sources each day:

Self-Reported Use of 10 Sources of News: Percentage Using Each Source "Every Day" Dec. 5-8, 2002 Gallup Poll
	Republicans	Independents	Democrats	Republican minus Democrat
Local television news	56%	52%	64%	-8
Local newspapers	45	45	50	-5
Nightly network news programs on ABC, CBS or NBC	40	41	47	-7
Cable news networks such as CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC	43	38	40	3
Public television news	31	31	42	-11
Morning news and interview shows on national TV networks	31	25	32	-1
National Public Radio	23	22	22	1
Radio talk shows	29	21	15	14
News on the Internet	14	17	15	-1
National Newspapers such as New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal	11	10	11	0

Several conclusions are prompted by these findings:

1. Regardless of party identification, local news media are still most important to Americans. Republicans, independents, and Democrats are all more likely to say they use local television news and local newspapers than any other news sources.

2. Confirming the conventional wisdom, the biggest distinction between Republicans and Democrats comes in terms of their use of radio talk shows for news and information. Twenty-nine percent of Republicans say they listen to radio talk shows every day for news, compared to 15% of Democrats.

Although twice as many Republicans listen daily to radio talk shows as do Democrats, it is important to note that such talk shows are still relatively low on the list of news sources used by Republicans. Local television news, local newspapers, cable news networks, nightly network news programs, public television news, and morning news and interview shows on network television are all used "every day" by a greater percentage of Republicans than are radio talk shows.

A comparison of the current data with the results of a similar survey in 1999 shows there has been a significant increase in the daily use of radio talk shows over the last 3 years (among all Americans), from 12% who said they used radio talk shows every day in 1999 to 22% today.

3. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to use public television news, local television news, nightly network news shows, and local newspapers as daily news sources.

Despite the perception of some observers that National Public Radio provides a more liberal approach to the news, these data show that Democrats are no more likely to report listening to NPR on a daily basis than are Republicans.

4. There is little difference in the self-reported use of cable news channels by partisanship. There has been a good deal of focus on what is perceived by some to be a conservative orientation of the Fox News Channel, but, as noted above, this question combined CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC into one category, so we are not able to distinguish any partisan differences in the use of the specific cable news channels (if it does in fact exist). Use of cable news channels on a daily basis in general has gone from 29% in 1999 to 41% today.

5. Despite the increasing prominence of the Internet in Americans' lives, only 14% of those we interviewed reported using the Internet for news on a daily basis. That puts the Internet in the next-to-last position on the list, only slightly above national newspapers. There has, however, been an increase in use of the Internet for news over the last 3 years -- from 8% who used it every day in 1999 to 15% today.

6. There is little difference by party in the use of national newspapers for news. Many analysts argue that The New York Times, and to a lesser degree The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, may help set the national news agenda, which may be true, but only about 1 out of 10 Americans use them on a daily basis.

Discussion

The bottom line: People of all partisan bents get their news from generally the same sources of news, and those tend to be local.

These data do confirm that Republicans are more likely than independents or Democrats to use radio talk shows on a regular basis as a source of news and information. It is beyond the scope of this analysis to explain the reasons for this phenomenon, but certainly it appears that the radio talk-show venue has become a more popular source of news for those on the right than for those on the left.

Still, it is important to note that use of radio talk shows is by no means universal even among Republicans. Only about 3 out of 10 Republicans listen to radio talk shows on a daily basis, and Republicans are much more likely to use local and national news media than radio talk shows as their sources of news. It is difficult, therefore, to argue that the thinking of the entire Republican base across the country is being controlled by such radio talk shows.

This analysis shows that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to report using local news media, the national network news, and public television.

Some critics have argued that the traditional news media are liberal in their orientation (a perception borne out by the responses of Americans interviewed in previous Gallup research), so the fact that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to use these traditional sources could be seen as an indirect confirmation of this tendency. But correlation is no proof of causation, and there may well be a variety of other demographic or cultural reasons why Democrats find themselves using these sources more often.

All in all, the data confirm that Americans are still relatively traditional in the ways they get news and information, and that local television news and local newspapers are still the most frequent ways in which the public becomes informed. Use of the Internet as a source of news, although up from 3 years ago, is still relatively minimal. Perhaps the most important trend documented in these data is the increased use of cable news channels, which are now almost as frequently used by Americans of all political persuasions as are the traditional network news channels.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,001 adults, 18 years and older, conducted Dec. 5-8, 2002. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Please indicate how often you get your news from each of the following sources -- every day, several times a week, occasionally, or never. How about -- [RANDOM ORDER]?

A. Local newspapers in your area

 

		Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
		%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8		47	13	26	14	*
1999 Jul 22-25		54	14	21	10	1
1998 Jul 13-14		53	15	22	10	0
1998 Mar 6-9 ^		50	12	26	11	1
^	Asked of a half sample.

B. National newspapers such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today

 

		Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
		%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8		11	5	26	58	0
1999 Jul 22-25		9	7	30	54	*
1998 Jul 13-14		4	11	26	59	0
1998 Mar 6-9 ^		8	6	28	57	1
^	Asked of a half sample.

C. Nightly network news programs on ABC, CBS or NBC

 

	Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
	%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8	43	16	25	15	1
1999 Jul 22-25	52	18	22	8	0
1998 Jul 13-14	55	19	19	7	*
1998 Mar 6-9	56	19	17	7	1
1995 Aug 11-14	62	20	15	3	*

D. Morning news and interview programs on the national TV networks

 

	Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
	%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8	29	10	26	34	1
1999 Jul 22-25	32	11	29	28	*
1998 Jul 13-14	25	13	27	35	*
1998 Mar 6-9	25	13	24	37	1
1995 Aug 11-14	23	13	34	30	0

E. Cable news networks such as CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC

 

		Every day		Several times a week		Occasionally		Never		No opinion
	%		%		%		%		%
2002 Dec 5-8	41		15		26		18		*
1999 Jul 22-25 ^	29		22		32		17		*
1998 Jul 13-14 ^	21		16		33		29		1
1998 Mar 6-9 ^	22		16		34		27		1
1995 Aug 11-14 ^	23		20		36		21		0
^ WORDING: CNN News or CNN Headline News

F. Public television news

 

	Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
	%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8	35	12	29	24	*
1999 Jul 22-25	30	12	33	24	1
1998 Jul 13-14	16	9	33	40	2
1998 Mar 6-9	19	10	32	37	2
1995 Aug 11-14	23	15	39	22	1

G. Local television news from TV stations in your area

 

	Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
	%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8	57	16	18	9	*
1999 Jul 22-25	58	14	19	9	*
1998 Jul 13-14	57	15	19	9	*
1998 Mar 6-9	56	17	17	9	1
1995 Aug 11-14	55	18	20	7	0

H. National Public Radio

	Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
	%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8	22	9	28	40	1
1999 Jul 22-25	17	10	32	41	*
1998 Jul 13-14	15	12	25	47	1
1998 Mar 6-9	20	10	26	43	1
1995 Aug 11-14	18	11	36	35	0

I. Radio talk shows

	Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
	%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8	22	10	29	39	*
1999 Jul 22-25	12	8	33	47	*
1998 Jul 13-14	12	9	21	58	*
1998 Mar 6-9	11	5	25	58	1
1995 Aug 11-14	12	5	35	48	0

J. News on the Internet

		Every day	Several times a week	Occasionally	Never	No opinion
		%	%	%	%	%
2002 Dec 5-8		15	8	27	50	*
1999 Jul 22-25 ^		8	7	23	62	*
1998 Jul 13-14 ^		7	6	17	70	*
1998 Mar 6-9 ^		5	6	18	70	1
1995 Aug 11-14 ^		3	3	12	82	0
* Less than 0.5%
^	WORDING: News on the computer using the Internet or an on-line computer service

SUMMARY TABLE: SOURCES OF NEWS

2002 Dec 5-8 (sorted by "every day")	Every day	Several times a week
	%	%
Local television news from TV stations in your area	57	16
Local newspapers in your area	47	13
Nightly network news programs on ABC, CBS or NBC	43	16
Cable news networks such as CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC	41	15
Public television news	35	12
Morning news and interview programs on the national TV networks	29	10
Radio talk shows	22	10
National Public Radio	22	9
News on the Internet	15	8
National newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today	11	5