How can Americans keep fully informed when it comes to the news, ensuring what they receive is accurate, free of bias and untainted by Artificial Intelligence? It’s getting harder, Pew Research Center says. That’s why it invited respondents to participate in a new story that asked in their own words what they think it means to be “a good news consumer.”
As Pew senior researcher Elisa Shearer reports, “The wide range of answers we received shows that Americans have many different ways of navigating the modern information landscape.”
The poll results are tied to a Pew Research Center survey from the Pew-Knight Initiative, and they reflect the increased power and responsibility individuals have to decide what news to consume and trust.
Among the top topics noted when it comes to being a good news consumer is skepticism or discernment. One in five respondents noted this in their responses. Pew says some people mentioned critical thinking or taking things “with a grain of salt.” Others made statements like “don’t believe everything you hear.” Some even warned about “propaganda.”
Another 12% said a good news consumer researches or fact-checks the news on their own. This can include checking multiple sources, searching on the internet, and questioning what news organizations or official sources are saying.
Interestingly, some 82% of respondents say they at least sometimes do their own research to check the accuracy of the news reports they consume.
How often Americans consume news is, to little surprise, based on age. Some 47% of all respondents said it is extremely or very important for people to get news regularly. However, this percentage decreases when younger adults are queried.
There is another trend in news consumption that may upset some in broadcast TV: About half of Americans — and a large majority of young adults — say they get news mostly because they happen to come across it, not because they are looking for it.
When describing what it means to be a good news consumer, smaller shares of Americans talked about what people should do after consuming news. For example, 4% said a good news consumer does not share inaccurate news, with responses like “Make sure you get everything right before you post something.” In the focus groups, a woman in her 20s talked about sharing things she later found out were low quality: “I used to have a bad habit of not watching the whole video before sending it and realizing the other half was not so great.”
Another 3% said in their open-ended responses that they use news to make decisions or improve their lives. One person specifically pointed out being informed when voting: “Be able to make informed choices about who you choose to represent you.”
