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Home Research Topics News Habits & Media Media & Society Politics & Media Media Polarization
Pew Research CenterSeptember 29, 2017
Covering President Trump in a Polarized Media Environment

Outlets with left-leaning and mixed audiences over time became less negative, more neutral in their assessments of the Trump administration

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Outlets with left-leaning and mixed audiences over time became less negative, more neutral in their assessments of the Trump administration

Post Infographics

Covering President Trump in a Polarized Media Environment
News outlets differed in the sources they cited and assessments of Trump/administration
Outlets with a left-leaning audience more likely to refute a statement made by Trump/administration
Five topics accounted for two-thirds of all coverage of the early days of the Trump administration
Trump/administration initiated the most coverage, was the source type most cited
Stories with multiple source types most likely to have a negative assessment of Trump/administration
Coverage of Trump’s first 60 days delivered greater share of negative assessments than coverage of previous presidents
Outlets with a left-leaning, right-leaning and mixed audience covered similar topics, used similar frames
Outlets appealing to a right-leaning audience less likely than other outlet groups to cite multiple source types
Outlets appealing to a right-leaning audience less likely to cite administration, experts, interest groups
Outlets with a right-leaning audience had far more stories with a positive assessment of Trump/administration
Outlets with left-leaning and mixed audiences over time became less negative, more neutral in their assessments of the Trump administration
Outlets with a left-leaning audience most frequently had journalist refutations of statements from Trump/administration
News outlets were similar in use of Trump tweets
Administration statements and actions drive most coverage for all outlet groups
Five topics accounted for two-thirds of all coverage of the early days of the Trump administration
Nearly all stories for three out of the five most prominent topics framed around Trump’s leadership versus policy agenda
Source types cited varied some by story topic
Positive assessments of Trump/ administration rare across all five prominent topics
Trump/administration triggered stories across all main topics, but other actors also came into play
Trump/administration most likely to be refuted in stories about president’s political skills
Trump tweets cited in about one-in-five stories about political skills and immigration
Coverage of Trump delivered greater share of negative assessments than coverage of previous presidents
Coverage in 2017 was framed much more around leadership and character than in the past
Since 1993, coverage less prominent for domestic issues, more prominent for management and political approach
Fox, CNN and MSNBC each accounted for the largest portion of content in their respective outlet group
Fox News’ emphasis on domestic issues driven by coverage of immigration
Source types in Fox News coverage notably different than in other outlets with a right-leaning audience
Fox News coverage more driven by Trump/administration, less by media than other outlets with a right leaning audience
CNN’s foreign affairs focus tied more to coverage of U.S.-Russia relations than other mixed-audience outlets
CNN’s coverage more negative than other mixed-audience outlets
MSNBC’s assessments of Trump/ administration far more negative than those from other left-appealing outlets
MSNBC cited the media more often, experts less often than other outlets with a left-leaning audience
MSNBC emphasized U.S.-Russia relations far more than other outlets with a left-leaning audience
Mix of source types by platform
Mix of source types by platform and outlet group
Evaluation of Trump/administration by platform
Evaluation of Trump/administration by platform and outlet group
Presence of Trump’s tweets by platform
Presence of Trump’s tweets by platform and outlet group
Topic: Domestic issues
Topic: President’s management and political approach
Topic: Foreign affairs
Assessment of Trump/administration
Source type
Number of source types cited
Presence of tweet
Broad topic category for each presidency based on comparison sample

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