A group of researchers asked 80,000 people across 40 countries about their news consumption habits and preferences. Joshua Benton unpacks the results for Nieman Lab.
@Flipboard What does "impartial" mean, though? If they treat Republicans as the same as Democrats, how can you call that "impartial" when 90% of the toxic glurge in the country comes from Republicans?
@yoused @Flipboard
There are also places that rate journalism based on bias, but bias seems to be based on the Overton window. So journalism that comes out against fascism can never rate better than "leans left" because fascism is seen as part of the political spectrum, not an outlier. Parts of the actual right wing media bubble might only get "leans right" because there are many that are more extreme.
@yoused Yes, there's some very interesting detail specific to the U.S. in the story (bearing in mind also that the survey data comes from January and February 2020 — a different world, though it feels like some of these divisions have only become more stark in the past five years).
"Interestingly, the United States was a standout on the issue of ideology — on both left and right. Among the 40 countries, U.S. liberals ranked No. 1 in how much extra support they gave to 'impartial' media. This is almost certainly driven by the Trump I-era phenomenon of liberals viewing the news media as a counterbalance to his administration. It’s a contrast to the broader global tendency of people on the left being more skeptical of neutral news sources. (Think of what was called 'alternative media' before the internet came along.)
"Meanwhile, among the 40 countries, U.S. conservatives ranked No. 2 in how much extra support they gave to ideologically aligned media. In other words, they don’t trust the 'fake news' or 'lamestream media,' turning instead to Fox and its ilk. (Only Spain’s conservatives gave more support to ideologically aligned media.)"