Results from a national Sacred Heart University survey released today reveal that many news consumers believe the media played a significant role in electing President Barack Obama and that the media continue to promote his presidency.
Titled “Trust and Satisfaction with the National News Media,” the national survey of 800 Americans renews attention to the issue of liberal media bias and its effect on political coverage.
“A large majority, 89.3 percent, suggested the national media played a very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect President Obama,” according to a summary of the findings. “Just 10.0 percent suggested the national media played little or no role. Further, 69.9 percent agreed the national news media are intent on promoting the Obama presidency while 26.5 percent disagreed. Some, 3.6 percent, were unsure.”
And 86.6 percent said they believe the news media try to influence public opinion and that they have their own public policy and political positions. This compares to 87.6 percent in 2008 and 70.3 percent in 2003.
The survey, the third Sacred Heart survey of its kind, was conducted from Sept. 8-11. I am still seeking demographic information about the people who took the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.
Of those surveyed, 70.4 percent said they believe the national news media are not responsive to “consumer preferences and market desires.”
Many said they wanted to see more war coverage. By a six-to-one ratio, the survey found, Americans would prefer coverage of Brian Bradshaw, the Army lieutenant who was killed in Afghanistan, over Michael Jackson, who died on the same day.
The share of people who believe there is too little war coverage (45.1 percent) slightly outweighed those who believe the level of coverage is about right (41.3 percent). And 57.4 percent said they didn’t see enough coverage of the men and women involved in fighting wars.
The study did not indicate which medium the respondents turn to for news, but it did indicate that about 38 percent say they read newspapers less frequently than they did five years ago. Nearly 68 percent said they agreed with the statement: “Old-style, traditionally objective and fair journalism is dead.”
Only 22.1 percent agreed that tax dollars should be used to help failing newspapers.
Only one-quarter said they believe all or most of news media reporting. The most-trusted television news organization was Fox News (30 percent), but it also was cited as the least-trusted (26.2 percent). Also listed as most-trusted were CNN (19.5 percent), ABC News (7.5 percent) and NBC News (7.5 percent).
Just over 70 percent said they believe it is very or somewhat important that there are limits on how many news organizations one company can own. Meanwhile, nearly 57 percent said they believe it’s detrimental to democracy that six companies own most major U.S. media outlets.
