Elizabeth Grieco

Overall, about two-in-ten Americans say they have ever spoken with or been interviewed by a local journalist.

A majority of rural Americans say local news media mostly cover an area other than the one where they live.

There are partisan divisions over certain aspects of local news reporting, including whether local journalists should express views on local issues.

A majority of Americans believe the news media do not understand people like them, and this feeling is especially common among Republicans.

Newsroom employees are more likely to be white and male than U.S. workers overall. There are signs, though, of a turning tide: Younger newsroom employees show greater racial, ethnic and gender diversity than their older colleagues, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Younger U.S. adults were better than their elders at differentiating between factual and opinion statements in a survey conducted in early 2018.

Newsroom employees are more than twice as likely as other U.S. workers to be college graduates. But they tend to make less money than college-educated workers in other industries.

While most Americans expect news will be accurate, most also say news organizations cover up mistakes, take sides

Newspaper layoffs have far from abated in the past year, and digital-native news outlets are also suffering losses. At least 36% of the largest U.S. newspapers and at least 23% of the highest-traffic digital-native news outlets experienced layoffs between January 2017 and April 2018.

U.S. adults are mostly against government action that could limit people’s ability to access and publish information online. There is more support for steps by technology companies.