Study: Most Admired Journalists

Reflecting today’s fragmented news landscape, about half of the public offers no specific answer when asked to name the journalist or newsperson they most admire.

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds no journalist is named by more than 5% of the public in response to an open-ended question. While individual mentions are few, the most frequently named journalists continue to include both network anchors and cable hosts. However, there are fewer mentions of network news journalists in the latest survey than in 2007, while mentions of cable news hosts and anchors have held about steady.

The decline in mentions of admired journalists is a response to a wider array of news choices. In 1985, nearly two-thirds (65%) could name a favorite journalist; 35% provided no answer. In 2007, 44% did not name anyone. Currently, 52% offer no name, according to the latest News Interest Index survey of 1,005 adults conducted Oct. 7-10 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

As was the case in 2007, no single person is named by more than 5% of the public, when respondents are asked which journalist or newsperson they most admire. But, in a shift over the past three years, cable newspeople are mentioned about as often as network news anchors and reporters; 17% name journalists or newspeople who are primarily seen on the traditional broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC or PBS), while 16% name people who are primarily seen on cable news channels (CNN, Fox News or MSNBC). By contrast, in 2007 the balance tilted toward the network newspeople: 25% of Americans named network anchors or reporters, while 14% named cable newspeople.

Among individual journalists, Diane Sawyer is mentioned by 5%, Katie Couric by 4%, Bill O’Reilly by 3% and Glenn Beck by 3%. The differences in the percentages mentioning these news figures are not statistically significant.

Even a quarter century ago, when there were far fewer news choices, no single journalist was mentioned by more than about one-in-ten Americans. In 1985, Dan Rather, then the anchor of the CBS Evening News, was mentioned most frequently; 11% volunteered Rather as the newsperson they admired most.

Since then, the range of news options has expanded considerably. Pew Research’s most recent media consumption survey found that nearly as many Americans are now getting news on a given day from traditional and digital platforms (36%) as from traditional platforms alone (39%). (See “Americans Spending More Time Following the News,” Sept. 12, 2010).

The News Interest Index also finds that the public continued to focus most closely last week on news about the economy, while the media devoted the largest share of coverage to midterm elections. Separately, an increasing proportion of Americans say that, based on what they have read and heard, they think it is more likely that Republicans will regain a majority in the House of Representatives than that the Democrats will retain control; 50% expect the Republicans to win a majority, up from 41% in early September.

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