News Media

In a 2026 Pew Research survey of over 3,500 U.S. adults, only 8% of respondents stated that they felt an individual responsibility to pay for news. Among respondents 18-29, only 4% felt a responsibility to pay for news. In the same survey, nearly half of the respondents say they get the news because they are looking for it. 49% say they "happen to come across" the news they view or read (Pew).

This is a 180-degree change from the news environment of much of the 20th century. In Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, he asserts that in 1950, Americans averaged 1.3 newspapers per household. The surveys tell us that very few people today believe it's important to have a news subscription, but decades ago, nearly everyone subscribed to a newspaper, and many people subscribed to multiple newspapers.

Along with national network news programs, national newspapers like USA Today were consumed across the country. More important than the national news, however, were local broadcast news and local newspapers. In preceding eras, you could have safely assumed that nearly everyone in your neighborhood read the same news in the same newspaper and watched similar network news programs out of 3 or 4 network options.

I won't assert that this system was always fair and accurate. News corporations are subject to market demands like any other product, and sensationalism has always sold best. Crime, mystery, and scandal get people to consume programs and stories, so overall the concept of "the news" could more accurately be called "the bad news." However, along with the lurid news item of the day, a neighborhood in which everyone consumed the same news sources meant that all had access to the same clips, headlines, and details about their city, state, and country.

This effect is sometimes called a "monoculture." Today's internet news environment, detailed in the next section of ConspiracyCritic, leads us into our own individualized algorithm of news. As the chart above indicates, around half the country does not look for the news; the news finds them. The news that "finds us" is based on items we have clicked on or stopped scrolling to view before. Our individual news feeds vary greatly. Without a monocultural news environment, we no longer have a broad knowledge of the same set of topics or events and instead receive news that's designed specifically for us.

There are obvious advantages to an individualized news diet. Unfortunately, much of today's news is less reliable than many traditional news organizations. Traditional media sources have publication standards. Licensed broadcasters, for example, are subject to legal regulation. They can have their licenses revoked for false reports. Major news sources also have field reporters providing first-person detail of events as well as editors and fact-checkers to verify their stories.

Online news sources are not bound by the same rules. Social media and internet-based news sites, podcasts, etc. allow individuals to share their opinions. Any one of us can start a podcast tomorrow. However, we won't be able to employ people to go to a newsworthy event, check our facts, or edit our language. This is why so much of the "news" in our social media feeds is opinion-based. We're each entitled to our own opinions, and the 1st amendment extends our individual right to share that opinion. But knowing an influencer or organization's point of view is not the same as learning the objective details of a story. Further, without publication standards, internet sources can embellish or invent claims without evidence. For example, I can go on Instagram live and say that my neighbor stole my garbage cans. I do not have to prove this with evidence. I can just make my case. This type of unreliable claim is often spread far and wide in today's news environment, and often the issue is of much more importance than the fate of my garbage can.

The news that gets shared the most is the news that holds people's attention the best. In the next section of ConspiracyCritic, we'll review the way people are drawn to extremist instead of moderate news opinion and reporting.

The articles linked in this section focus on:

Media Bias Chart with X and Y Axes (Ad Fontes, All Sides)

Discussion of media chart reliability (Sheridan)

Surveys results highlighting American perspectives of the news (Pew Research; Yougov)

Discussion of impact of Americans' perspectives of the news (Tameez)

Sources:

This page was written and edited by Jay Trucker

August 2026

Contact

Jay Trucker, Ph.D.

Email

jtrucker@ccbcmd.edu