Study: What Do We Not Know?
And where do we not learn it?
According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Americans know less about current events than they did two decades ago. Only 69% of Americans could name Dick Cheney as the Vice-President (compared to 74% who could name Dan Quayle in 1989). Only 66% could name the governor of their state (74% in 1989). “In 1989, fully 81 percent of people knew that the United States had a trade deficit; today, only 68 percent knew.”
But here’s one big difference: the survey respondents who seemed to know the most about what’s going on — who were able to identify major public figures, for example — were likely to be viewers of fake news programs like Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”; those who knew the least watched network morning news programs, Fox News or local television news.
I don’t know whether to sit here with a smug look or bewail the political disconnect in this country.
Comment by Kathy — April 19, 2007 @ 8:21 am
Kathy, I’m with you. The sad part is that fake news programs like “Daily Show” and “Colbert” seem to be more educational than actual news programs.
Comment by ALmod — April 19, 2007 @ 9:05 am
What I find interesting, and not really shocking, is that network evening news, local television, Fox News and morning news shows are all within the margin of error at the bottom. The people who get their news from these sources, probably only watch a few minutes of news per day. Contrast that with the programs at the highest end: Rush Limbaugh listeners, NPR listeners, O’Reilly viewers, Jim Lehrer, major newspapers, etc.
I’d suggest people who consume Limbaugh and NPR and read major newspapers consume more media per day than those who watch the nightly news—consuming more information usually leads to having more knowledge. As the report says, “The polling does find the expected correlation between how much citizens know and how avidly they watch, read, or listen to news reports.”
Also, viewers who watch the Daily Show and Colbert actually are entertained while delivered “some” information, which I’d suggest explains why people retain the information better than watching Nighly news broadcasts. News today is boring, unlike during the Cold War, when lots of interesting things were on television.
Comment by Capstone — April 19, 2007 @ 9:18 am
The quote from the NYTimes “those who knew the least watched network morning news programs, Fox News or local television news” is typically selective and misleading.
Compare that to what the Pew Study actually said:
“However, there is no clear connection between news formats and what audiences know. Well-informed audiences come from cable (Daily Show/Colbert Report, O’Reilly Factor), the internet (especially major newspaper websites), broadcast TV (NewsHour with Jim Lehrer) and radio (NPR, Rush Limbaugh’s program). The less informed audiences also frequent a mix of formats: broadcast television (network morning news shows, local news), cable (Fox News Channel), and the internet (online blogs where people discuss news events).”
To illustrate, the Times could just as easily have said: “those who knew the least watched CNN and read Doc’s blog”. We all know that ain’t exactly true.
Comment by Reactionary — April 19, 2007 @ 10:35 am
Pew has a fun quiz:
http://pewresearch.org/newsiq/
Comment by Reactionary — April 19, 2007 @ 10:57 am
Fun quiz, Reactionary, thanks!
Also, Reactionary, I think you misread the Pew Study. For example, they said, “However, there is no clear connection between news formats and what audiences know.” So, well-informed audiences watch cable (those who watch Daily Show/Colbert, O’Reilly), but also less-informed audiences watch cable (those who watch Fox News).
The last box at the bottom of this page bears this out. In this study, on average 35% of all Americans were “high knowledge” on current events. But over 50% of the regular audiences of The Daily Show/Colbert, O’Reilly, NPR, Lehrer, and major newspaper websites were in the “high knowledge” category. Only 35% or less of regular audiences of Fox News, network morning news, or local TV news fell in the high knowledge group.
Based on that, I think it’s fair to say that the Times did accurately represent the results of the Pew Study about which audiences were best informed. I don’t think it’s accurate to say that one could just as justifiably say that the CNN audience knows the least, as several news sources in the chart had audiences with smaller %’s falling in the “high knowledge” group.
There is something about that particular Pew Study paragraph that you quoted that is a bit confusing. I had to read it more than once.
Comment by Danny — April 19, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
I should have made my point about the NYTimes selective bias more clear. You may be seeing the forest, but I’m looking at a tree. The Times highlights “Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”.” Contrast that to the Pew statement “cable (Daily Show/Colbert Report, O’Reilly Factor)”. Hmmm. O’Reilly isn’t mentioned by the Times. Maybe the Times was contrasting that fake news viewers may be more informed than real news viewers. But I just think the Times took a cheap shot at O’Reilly / FoxNews.
I admit that this could be my own bias and contempt for the mainstream media :-)
And to be fair, maybe I should note that CNN was ranked higher (6 points) in the Pew study than FoxNews.
I did find the Pew report interesting in that: people pay attention about as much as or more than they used to, educated people know more, and TV shows with large audiences reflect their large audiences by scoring lower. However, it was fun to note that NPR (~13 million) and Rush (~20 million) listeners scored about the same.
Maybe they should do a study to see if radio waves make you smarter.
Comment by Reactionary — April 19, 2007 @ 1:35 pm
Thanks for clarifying, Reactionary. I confess that I took that their point there was to contrast viewers of fake news vs. real news viewers because the results of that comparison is certainly not what one might expect.
Comment by Danny — April 20, 2007 @ 12:30 am
Fun quiz. I got a 96.
Comment by Dan — April 20, 2007 @ 12:47 am
[…] the Links Friday, April 20, 2007 What do you know? Dan on 2007-04-20 @ 8:15 am A commenter at Doc’s Political Parlor, Reactionary, pointed usto a quiz done by the Pew Research Center to test your knowledge of current national events. […]
Pingback by BTL: What do you know? — April 20, 2007 @ 8:17 am
Dan, it’s the only quiz I’ve taken where getting all answers correct (9 of 9) scores as a 96.
Must be statistics.
Comment by Reactionary — April 20, 2007 @ 8:31 am