Americans’ Complicated Relationship With News

Americans today describe a complicated relationship with the news. Most say being informed is essential for civic life—especially voting—yet many feel overwhelmed, skeptical and selective about how they engage with information, according to a new Pew Research Center study from the Pew-Knight Initiative. A central tension shapes today’s news landscape. Most people believe Americans have a civic responsibility to be informed when they vote. But far fewer say regularly following news is extremely or very important in general, and roughly half say they can stay informed even if they don’t actively follow it. The reality of how people get news nowadays plays into this tension. Americans are evenly split between those who mostly get news because they are seeking it out and those who mostly let news find them. But either way, the high volume of information reaching people from a wide variety of sources brings with it several challenges.