Conservatives vs. Liberals: The Political Impact of the Mainstream Media in America
Pew Survey. Conservatives Get Their News from Fox; Liberals Get Theirs Everywhere
Pew headlined on October 21st, “Political Polarization & Media Habits,” and reported “Striking Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives,” such as that Fox News Channel dominates as the news-source among conservatives, but that no news-source dominates among liberals.
47% of “Consistent Conservatives” cite FNC as their “main source for news about gov’t and politics,” whereas 15% of “Consistent Liberals” cite CNN as theirs — and no news-source is more-frequently cited by them than CNN. NPR ranks second among them, at 13%. MSNBC is third, at 12%. New York Times is fourth, at 10%. Local TV is fifth, at 5%.
By contrast: for “Consistent Conservatives,” Local radio is second, at 11%. Local TV is third, at 5%. Local newspaper is fourth, at 3%. Google news is fifth, at 3%.
Those are the main news-sources for more than 96% of Americans.
Here are the two main tables, showing which news sources each of the 2,901 respondents named:
The key question listed 36 news-sources, and doesn’t indicate influence but only that the respondent has “heard of” the named source (it’s like a politician’s name-recognition, versus his actual support):
ASK ALL WEB RESPONDENTS:
Q.20 Please click on all of the sources that you have heard of, regardless of whether you use them or not. If you are unsure, please DO NOT click it. You can click anywhere in each of the boxes.
Mar 19-Apr 29 2014
Based on web respondents
[N=2,901] [%]
95 CNN
94 ABC News
94 NBC News
93 CBS News
93 Fox News Cable Channel
90 USA Today
89 MSNBC
88 PBS
85 New York Times
82 Wall Street Journal
80 Yahoo News
80 Washington Post
76 BBC
71 Google News
66 Rush Limbaugh Show
66 Huffington Post
65 The New Yorker
64 Daily Show
62 Colbert Report
60 Bloomberg
53 NPR
49 Glenn Beck Program
42 Al Jazeera America
36 The Guardian
34 The Economist
34 Drudge Report
32 Politico
31 BuzzFeed
22 Mother Jones
21 Slate
18 The Blaze
15 Breitbart
12 Daily Kos
9 ThinkProgress
In addition, there were included a few news-sources that shouldn’t have been. For example, the Ed Show, on MSNBC, was listed, whereas it’s only one show of many on that channel and not even the most-watched. (Among the ones more-watched there are Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell.) But no show on the channel should have been listed, because the channel itself, MSNBC, was one of the listed options. Similarly, the Hannity Show on Fox was listed, though FNC itself was also listed, and though the O’Reilly show on that channel has an even larger audience. Moreover, Mother Jones was listed, but The Nation was not, National Review was not, Harper’s was not, etc.
The list that I have included here from Pew’s does, however, include the Colbert Report, and Daily Show, because the Comedy Channel wasn’t listed; and it includes Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, because they are independently syndicated.
The Pew study just wasn’t well-thought-out. Nonetheless, it’s not a complete waste.
Here is their other key table, indicating actual influence: the respondent’s “main source” of political news:
ALL SOURCES MENTIONED
Mar 19-Apr 29
Based on
web respondents
[N=2,901] [%]
16 CNN
14 Fox
10 Local TV
5 NPR
4 Local radio
4 Yahoo
4 Google
4 MSNBC
4 Local newspaper
3 NBC
3 ABC
3 New York Times
3 MSN
2 CBS
2 Facebook
2 Huffington Post
2 Local digital
1 BBC
1 Blog
1 Drudge
1 Univision/Telemundo/MundoFox
1 PBS
1 Blaze
1 Reddit
1 HLN
1 Rush Limbaugh
1 USA Today
1 Wall Street Journal
1 Other radio
11 Other
2 Refused
This indicates that even the TV networks and major newspapers have little political influence; only CNN, Fox, Local TV, NPR, and Local radio, do. Any political news that isn’t presented on one of those five is inconsequential, reaching too small an audience — unless another news-medium (such as The New York Times) picks the news-report up and it becomes spread so as to reach one or more of these five news-media.
Finally, the most-trusted news-sources also differed between liberals and conservatives, except the Wall Street Journal, which was trusted by all ideological groups (but un-influential on political matters because it’s mainly a business paper).
Liberals trusted everything except conservative media: BuzzFeed, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Drudge, Breitbart, FNC, and The Blaze.
Conservatives trusted The Wall Street Journal and those other conservative sources, except BuzzFeed, which was the opposite of The Wall Street Journal: it was distrusted by all ideological groups.
In any case: It seems that these are the only 5 news-sources that have any real political impact:
16 CNN
14 Fox
10 Local TV
5 NPR
4 Local radio
Everything else is just “buzz.”
