Divided Nation Undermines Democracy: What We See is What We Get and It's Nasty Ugly

 

This is not 1861 - let's stop acting like it is

(“Alt Right” Call for Civil War II is insane)

Pew Research in an older report (that still applies) says: It is virtually impossible today to live in a single ideological bubble. 

Most Americans rely on an array of outlets – with varying audience profiles – for their political & other news.

When it comes to political and governmental news, liberals and conservatives inhabit different worlds. 

There is little overlap in the news sources they turn to and trust. Whether discussing politics online or with friends, both are more likely to interact with the like-minded.  

The left and right information streams also are distinct from those of individuals with more mixed political views.

The three ways people get information about government and politics are: (1) the news media, (2) social media, and (3) from people who also talk about such as friends and family.

Those who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions have different ways of informing themselves about politics and government is not surprising.

The depth of the divisions between those who have strong ideological views and those who do not – are striking.

With consistent conservatives:

§  Are tightly clustered around a single news source, far more than any other group in the survey, with 47% citing Fox News as their main source for news about government and politics.

§  Have greater distrust than trust of 24 of the 36 news sources measured in the survey with 88% trusting Fox News.

§  On Facebook, they are more likely than those in other ideological groups to hear political opinions that are in line with their own views.

§  They are more likely to have some 2/3 or (66%) of friends who share their same political views.

With consistent liberals:

§  Less unified in their media loyalty by relying on a greater range of news outlets: NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, and most if not all, MSM media (ABC, CBS, NBC, et al) than others.

§  Express more trust than distrust of 28 of the 36 news outlets in the survey. For example NPR, PBS, and the BBC are the most trusted news sources.

§  More likely than those in other ideological groups to block or “defriend” someone on a social network – as well as to end a personal friendship due to political differences.

§  More likely to follow issue-based groups, rather than political parties or candidates in their Facebook feeds.

My 2 Cents: Pew Research does very excellent work and their product speaks to their excellence.

Sadly, people on both sides are pretty much the same in a lot of the ways cited above, but the Republicans stuck on Fox News by a wide divide is troubling and it shows in their Fox parrot approach to any Q&A is apparent.

That is a not a good sign for them or for the sustained division in the country – in fact, it’s very harmful in many ways because the spread of both mis- and disinformation is ripping us more and more apart and that is not good for our democratic system due to a lopsided view of the truth and factual reporting.

BTW: Fox in that category is void and a super disinformation spreader which is just as harmful as a new virus variant.

How to combat that? Simple, keep pushing a true and factual narrative and hope the public at large picks up – since we know some 30-35% do not – since they are stuck on Fox and their reporting which is anything but “fair and balanced.” More like unfair and unbalanced at least in my view with very raw exceptions.

Thanks for stopping by.