Thursday, May 24, 2012

People Learn Most from NPR, Sunday Morning Shows, ‘The Daily Show’

"People Learn Most from NPR, Sunday Morning Shows, ‘The Daily Show’." Fairleigh Dickinson press release, May 3, 2012.

From the press release: "According to a follow-up survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative news outlets, while exposure to partisan sources, such as Fox News and MSNBC, has a negative impact on people’s current events knowledge. This nationwide survey confirms initial findings presented in a New Jersey focused poll (from November of 2011).

In the study, 1,185 respondents nationwide were asked about what news sources they consumed in the past week and then were asked a variety of questions about current political and economic events in the U.S. and abroad. On average, people were able to answer correctly 1.8 of 4 questions about international news, and 1.6 of 5 questions about domestic affairs…. People who didn’t have any reported exposure to news sources were expected to answer 1.28 questions correctly, a figure which rose to 1.97 for people just listening to NPR, to 1.60 for people just watching The Daily Show or listening to talk radio, and 1.52 for people watching Sunday morning shows. By contrast, people who reported watching just Fox News were expected to answer just 1.08 questions correctly." Read more