News Audiences Increasingly Politicized
Despite tumultuous events abroad, the public's news habits have been relatively stable over the past two years. Yet modest growth has continued in two important areas - online news and cable news. Regarding the latter, the expanding audience for the Fox News Channel stands out. Since 2000, the number of Americans who regularly watch Fox News has increased by nearly half - from 17% to 25% - while audiences for other cable outlets have been flat at best.
Fox's vitality comes as a consequence of another significant change in the media landscape. Political polarization is increasingly reflected in the public's news viewing habits. Since 2000, the Fox News Channel's gains have been greatest among political conservatives and Republicans. More than half of regular Fox viewers describe themselves as politically conservative (52%), up from 40% four years ago. At the same time, CNN, Fox's principal rival, has a more Democrat-leaning audience than in the past.
The public's evaluations of media credibility also are more divided along ideological and partisan lines. Republicans have become more distrustful of virtually all major media outlets over the past four years, while Democratic evaluations of news organizations' credibility have remained mostly stable. As a result, only about half as many Republicans as Democrats rate a variety of well-known news outlets as credible - a list that includes ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, NPR, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, the New York Times, Newsweek, Time and U.S. News and World Report.
The biennial news consumption survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, conducted April 19-May 12, 2004 among 3,000 adults, finds that broad public attention to the war in Iraq has led to increased interest in international news generally. The number tracking overseas news closely most of the time has increased from 37% in 2002 to 52%.
And while most other media trends have been flat, there has been steady growth in the audience for online news. Internet news, once largely the province of young, white males, now attracts a growing number of minorities. The percentage of African Americans who regularly go online for news has grown by about half over the past four years (16% to 25%).
View Report: <http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=215>