A Growing Politicization

In the context of the exit poll debate last year, MP pointed to a Pew Research Center study showing that Republicans perceived greater bias in news media coverage than Democrats.  The point was that the lower levels of trust in the media by Republicans helps to explain why Bush voters may have been a bit more reluctant to cooperate with exit pollsters (who displayed network logos prominently).

Just last week, MP noted results from another Pew study showing a similar "credibility gap" between Republicans and Democrats in their trust of various national media outlets.  In a new study released just yesterday, Pew provides further evidence of a growing "politicization" of views of the news media:

Partisanship has long been a major factor in these attitudes. Even so, there has been a startling rise in the politicization of opinions on several measures  especially the question of whether the news media stands up for America, or is too critical of America.

The partisan gap on this issue has grown dramatically, as Republicans increasingly express the view that the press is excessively critical of the U.S. (67% now vs. 42% in 2002). Over the same period, Democratic opinions on this have remained fairly stable (24% now vs. 26% in 2002).

Republicans are now closely divided as to whether the press protects or hurts democracy; 40% say it protects democracy, while 43% believe it hurts democracy. Two years ago, by a fairly sizable margin (44%-31%) more Republicans felt that the press helped democracy. Democratic opinion on this measure has been more stable. In the current survey, 56% say the press protects democracy while just 27% say it hurts democracy.

Views on whether the press is politically biased have been more consistent over the years. More than seven-in-ten Republicans (73%) say the press is biased, compared with 53% of Democrats. Perceptions of political bias have increased modestly among members of both parties over the past two years.

[Emphasis added].

This latest study includes much more of interest including reports of media usage, ratings of media favorability and believability and detailed comparison of those that read newspapers online and in print.  Read it all.

Related Entries - Exit Polls, Polls in the News