Public Knowledge of Current Affairs Little Changed by News and Information Revolutions

[theaudacity]

Source: Pew Research Center

Since the late 1980s, the emergence of 24-hour cable news as a dominant news source and the explosive growth of the internet have led to major changes in the American public's news habits. But a new nationwide survey finds that the coaxial and digital revolutions and attendant changes in news audience behaviors have had little impact on how much Americans know about national and international affairs.

On average, today's citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are about as aware of major news events, as was the public nearly 20 years ago. The new survey includes nine questions that are either identical or roughly comparable to questions asked in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2007, somewhat fewer were able to name their governor, the vice president, and the president of Russia, but more respondents than in the earlier era gave correct answers to questions pertaining to national politics.

In 1989, for example, 74% could come up with Dan Quayle's name when asked who the vice president is. Today, somewhat fewer (69%) are able to recall Dick Cheney. However, more Americans now know that the chief justice of the Supreme Court is generally considered a conservative and that Democrats control Congress than knew these things in 1989. Some of the largest knowledge differences between the two time periods may reflect differences in the amount of press coverage of a particular issue or public figure at the time the surveys were taken. But taken as a whole the findings suggest little change in overall levels of public knowledge.

Read more: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=319

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My favorite fact from the report: The smartest group was Daily Show viewers, the dumbest was Faux News viewers.

[poverlay]

1. You mean there is still a huge segment of the populace that chooses ignorance? I'm sooo

surprised by that..:sarcasm:

[Peace Patriot]

3. 31% is not "huge." 69% is. And give the stupidos a break. Is it fair to say they "choose"

ignorance? Who are you thinking of? Willful rightwing 'christian' nutjobs? But they DO know who Cheney is. So we're probably talking about the poor, and the deliberately poorly educated, and/or people with three low paying jobs, struggling to put food on the table, and others who really and truly don't have time to read the newspaper, and don't have internet access. People whom our ruling class has abandoned--so that they feel no connection to their government. They just feel its heavy oppression. What benefit is it to them to know which of the unaccountable, devious, lying, thieving, murdering rulers holds which office--in their own view of things? Not much. So they can write Dick Cheney a letter? Unh-huh. I'm not saying I agree with this. I'm inspired by the leftist (majorityist) revolution in South America, which is grass roots driven, and by the people of Venezuela, for instance, most of whom have read their Constitution. I would like to see this 31% who don't know who the vice president is energized and empowered, and informed. But I can see how they feel. Why bother, when you're going to get life in prison for stealing a loaf of bread, or smoking a joint, anyway?

I think this attitude we sometimes see on the US left--that Americans are stupid, ignorant sheeple--is mostly formed by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, and is their only propaganda triumph, besides making us peace-minded progressives feel like a minority (--it's not true!). A better question for the poor--in polls like this--would be: What do you think of having a choice between a shit job at MacDonald's and risking your life in Iraq for Exxon-Mobile? I think you would find that Americans are savvier than they're given credit for, and that knowing who the Bunker Man is is not as important as knowing what the realities are, and what their choices are, on the ground, and FEELING the unfairness of it, and living it, every day.

[Hosnon]

4. Rational ignorance theory. It is simply not worth it to many people to keep

up with what is going on when their perceived benefits of doing so are too low.

[Captain Hilts]

2. People look to the Internets for affirmation, not information. nt

[Vinca]

5. Look at what the 24 hour cable news channels focus on -

Anna Nicole, Scott Peterson, Runaway Bride, Brangelina, any murdered blonde girl, American Idol. It's rare when the war is the first story at the top of the hour. Then there are the rags like Newsweek. There have been a couple of issues over the past year that did not mention Iraq at all. If a person isn't connected to Internet news, they are in the dark.