Pew: A Fifth Of U-S Adults Get Political News In Media Bubble

About one-fifth of Americans in each party (20% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents and 18% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents) get political and election news in a given week only from outlets whose audiences align with them politically, according to a new analysis of data from Pew Research Center's Election News Pathways project. 

Building on a recent Center report on media polarization and the 2020 election, the current analysis examines those U.S. adults who choose a more politically isolated news diet, finding for example that Republicans who get political news only from outlets with right-leaning audiences tend to be older and more likely to attend religious services. 

Meanwhile, Democrats who get news only from outlets with left-leaning audiences are more likely to be female and have graduated college. 

Ideological differences within party are greater among those Americans in political news bubbles: 61% of all Republicans identify as "conservative" or "very conservative," but that number increases to 86% among Republicans who get political news only from outlets with right-leaning audiences. Similarly, 45% of all Democrats identify as "liberal" or "very liberal," but that number increases to 62% among those Democrats who get political news only from outlets with left-leaning audiences. 

These political news bubbles relate to Americans' attitudes toward President Donald Trump, reliance on a "main source" for election news and various demographic characteristics. The current analysis stems from a survey of 12,043 U.S. adults who are members of the Center’s American Trends Panel, conducted Oct. 29-Nov. 11, 2019. Visit our data tool to dig deeper into related survey questions. 

Read more