Fox News viewers don't know much

latecomer · 10-05-2007

from here:

A study by the Pew Research Center shows that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last:

See also here.

yaaarrrgg · 10-05-2007

Well, it's a catch 22. How are they going to know anything watching fake news?

scooper · 10-05-2007

Believe it or not, I'm less scared of an overall lack of knowledge than an unwillingness to hear more than one side of an issue. People watch Fox, or Olbermann, and read The Drudge Report or The Daily Kos precisely because they want their own opinions echoed and amplified. Notice that I mentioned both right and left wing outlets

So politicians end up thinking they only need to talk to one extreme or the other. And guess what results from that non-melting pot of ideas?

Intelligent close-minded people are worse than ignorant, but open-minded, ones.

Rasczak · 10-05-2007

Did any of you guys read Pew's comments on the poll?

How do they distinguish audiences? I watch Colbert and Stewart, I watch a little local news, I catch O'Reilly if I know something good is going to be on, and I get news from several other sources mentioned. I'm a "regular viewer" of more than one of these. So after they gave me this quiz, I wonder which of the outlets would be incremented?

Quote:

The survey provides further evidence that changing news formats are not having a great deal of impact on how much the public knows about national and international affairs. The polling does find the expected correlation between how much citizens know and how avidly they watch, read, or listen to news reports. The most knowledgeable third of the public is four times more likely than the least knowledgeable third to say they enjoy keeping up with the news "a lot."

There are substantial differences in the knowledge levels of the audiences for different news outlets. However, there is no clear connection between news formats and what audiences know.

I can see why liberals (or rabid fans of John Stewart) would get all gooey over the outcome of the poll, but it doesn't seems to really say anything substantial. Or at least it doesn't back up its finding with details that would impact them.

pENdr4gON · 10-06-2007

There was talk some time ago about putting an on screen warning on some channels. This was to alert the viewers that the content may be politically biased. It was the intent of the proposer that this warning would be for Aljazeera news. When they were told that they would have to put the same warning on Fox News they dropped the idea...

scooper · 10-06-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by pENdr4gON

There was talk some time ago about putting an on screen warning on some channels. This was to alert the viewers that the content may be politically biased. It was the intent of the proposer that this warning would be for Aljazeera news. When they were told that they would have to put the same warning on Fox News they dropped the idea...

I know this will be controversial, but my impression of the U.S. Al Jazeera is that it might actually be one of the less biased news outlets. They have some quality journalists (e.g. Dave Marash) and they're trying very hard to compensate for the assumptions people will make about their slant.

10-05-2007	#1 (permalink)
latecomer Monkey King Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 479	Fox News viewers don't know much from here: A study by the Pew Research Center shows that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last: See also here.
latecomer Monkey King Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 479	"DADA doubts everything. Dada is an armadillo. Everything is Dada, too. Beware of Dada. Anti-dadaism is a disease: selfkleptomania, man’s normal condition, is DADA. But the real dadas are against DADA." - Tristan Tzara

10-05-2007	#2 (permalink)
yaaarrrgg Eligible for a custom title Join Date: May 2007 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 791	Re: Fox News viewers don't know much Well, it's a catch 22. How are they going to know anything watching fake news?

10-05-2007	#3 (permalink)
scooper for all your bloviation needs Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 267	Re: Fox News viewers don't know much Believe it or not, I'm less scared of an overall lack of knowledge than an unwillingness to hear more than one side of an issue. People watch Fox, or Olbermann, and read The Drudge Report or The Daily Kos precisely because they want their own opinions echoed and amplified. Notice that I mentioned both right and left wing outlets So politicians end up thinking they only need to talk to one extreme or the other. And guess what results from that non-melting pot of ideas? Intelligent close-minded people are worse than ignorant, but open-minded, ones. Last edited by scooper : 10-05-2007 at 12:04 PM.
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10-06-2007	#5 (permalink)
pENdr4gON Less than 3 miles from the sea Join Date: May 2007 Location: Pompey UK Posts: 177	Re: Fox News viewers don't know much There was talk some time ago about putting an on screen warning on some channels. This was to alert the viewers that the content may be politically biased. It was the intent of the proposer that this warning would be for Aljazeera news. When they were told that they would have to put the same warning on Fox News they dropped the idea...
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