Study

This survey was conducted by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the American Press Institute, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, and the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

American teens and adults hold politicians and social media primarily responsible for the spread of misinformation while largely exempting local news.

While average confidence in news sources remains low, the public has varying degrees of trust across different types of news sources.

Influencers or independent creators have risen as popular sources of news and information, especially among younger audiences. Americans ages 13 and older turn to these sources for a variety of topics and reasons.

American teens and adults hold more positive views of local news and get it from a variety of sources.

American teens and adults, regardless of their age, use a variety of media, including traditional media, digital-only sources, and social media platforms to get news on a range of topics.

This report draws on a nationally representative survey of teens ages 13–17 and adults 18 and older, providing one of the most comprehensive, generationally comparative looks at how Americans navigate an increasingly complex news, information and media ecosystem.

Most adults follow news about elections — from presidential (77%) and state (64%) elections to local ballot initiatives (59%) and policies (70%) — at least somewhat closely.

This survey was conducted by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the American Press Institute (API) and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs [...]