News outlets got some bad news in a Pew Research study that found a decreasing appetite for closely following events of the day.
Pew said the decline was across the board for demographic groups by education, gender, race, ethnicity and political party affiliation, though some declines were bigger than others.
According to the just-released results from a 2022 survey of more than 12,000-plus adults, only 38% said they follow the news all or most of the time, down from 51% in 2016.
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The numbers were even worse for younger demos. Among adults 30-49, only 27% said they watched all or most of the time, down a whopping 19% from 46% who said so in 2016.
In the 18-29 demo, the number was 19%, down from 27%.
Perhaps led by their media-bashing leader, former President Donald Trump, the drop in Republicans closely following the news has been particularly precipitous.
In 2016, 57% of Republicans or Republican-leading independents said they followed the news al or most of the time. In the most recent survey, that percentage had fallen to 37%. For Democrats, the drop was only from 49% to 42%.
The online survey was conducted July 18 to August 21, 2022, among 12,147 U.S. adults. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.
The survey report was the latest from Pew’s research into the state of news and information in the digital age.
