Pew: Younger Demo Has Lower Opinion of Media Coverage

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Minority say media have done well covering protests

(Image credit: Pew Research)

According to a new survey, young people are not overly impressed with media coverage of either the racial justice protests or the pandemic.

Less than half of the 18-29's surveyed for a new Pew Research Survey (43%) say the media have done very or even somewhat well at covering the protests over the death of George Floyd.

Related: Survey Says National Outlets Top Covid-19 News Sources

Those numbers go up for the 30-49 cohort, 56% of which said they have done very or somewhat well.

The media get higher marks for pandemic coverage. A solid majority of all respondents (71%) say journalists have done very or somewhat well covering COVID-19. The 18-29 demo gives them the lowest marks at 63%. That may be because 61% of those 18-29s also say that the media hardly ever or only sometimes get their facts right about the coronavirus.

Pew surveyed 9,654 U.S. adults June 4 to 10, 2020, all part of Pew's online American Trends Panel (ATP). Pew said the survey is weighted to accurately reflect gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and more.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.