We've known for a while that liberals and conservatives inhabit different media worlds. Now a Pew Research Center study has documented it.
The project -- part of a year-long effort to shed light on political polarization in America -- looks at the ways people get information about government and politics in three different settings: the news media, social media and the way people talk about politics with friends and family. In all three areas, the study finds that those with the most consistent ideological views on the left and right have information streams that are distinct from those of individuals with more mixed political views -- and very distinct from each other....
Overall, the study finds that consistent conservatives:
- Are tightly clustered around a single news source, far more than any other group in the survey, with 47% citing Fox News as their main source for news about government and politics.
- Express greater distrust than trust of 24 of the 36 news sources measured in the survey. At the same time, fully 88% of consistent conservatives trust Fox News.
- Are, when on Facebook, more likely than those in other ideological groups to hear political opinions that are in line with their own views.
- Are more likely to have friends who share their own political views. Two-thirds (66%) say most of their close friends share their views on government and politics.
By contrast, those with consistently liberal views:
- Are less unified in their media loyalty; they rely on a greater range of news outlets, including some -- like NPR and the New York Times -- that others use far less.
- Express more trust than distrust of 28 of the 36 news outlets in the survey. NPR, PBS and the BBC are the most trusted news sources for consistent liberals.
- Are more likely than those in other ideological groups to block or "defriend" someone on a social network -- as well as to end a personal friendship -- because of politics.
- Are more likely to follow issue-based groups, rather than political parties or candidates, in their Facebook feeds.
What I find quite shocking, actually, is the media sources trusted by those who call themselves liberals.
It's understandable that liberals would trust sources that proclaim a liberal stance, like The Guardian, or Mother Jones, the Colbert Report, ThinkProgress, the Daily Show, Daily Kos, and the Ed Schultz Show.
Only one media source on that list, the BBC, provides what I would consider reporting that's as close to non-ideological, pure news reporting, as is humanly possible.
Of the rest on the list, why on earth are liberals considering them trustworthy news sources?
The Economist is a fine publication, but its ideological slant toward neoliberalism is obvious. Neoliberalism is not liberalism as North Americans understand it. Read the Economist, sure - I do - but recognize its ideological slant is no friend to liberalism. Trust it? No way!
NPR and PBS have a reputation for being liberal media sources, but that's old history. Now they have to chase funding from the Koch Brothers and their like, and they've adjusted their programming and perspective accordingly.
The Wall Street Journal as something to be trusted by liberals? Ha ha ha ha ha....
ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN news spout right-wing memes. Hardly a liberal thought to be found on any of them. Why would a liberal trust any of these as reliable new sources?
To be a liberal and trust these news sources without recognizing the strong right-wing and corporatist filters they put their reporting through is to let the right wing noise machine corrupt your mind and your values and push the Overton Window ever rightward without even putting up a fight.