Katerina Eva Matsa

The declining public trust in the news media and polarization of news audiences have profound effects on civic life.

About half (48%) of U.S. adults say they get news from social media “often” or “sometimes,” a 5 percentage point decline compared with 2020. More than half of Twitter users get news on the site regularly.

The pandemic and its effects on society became a pervasive part of the media narrative about Joe Biden’s first 60 days in office.

Staff layoffs continued to pummel the beleaguered U.S. newspaper industry in 2020, a period complicated by the impact of the pandemic.

Among the six publicly traded newspaper companies studied, second-quarter advertising revenue fell by a median of 42% year over year.

Though this figure is a sliver of all PPP loans lent out to small businesses as of August, it represents a large segment of U.S. newspaper companies.

Videos from independent news producers are more likely to cover subjects negatively and discuss conspiracy theories.

In March 2020, about three-quarters (74%) of public Facebook posts about COVID-19 linked to news organizations, while just 1% linked to health and science sites.

In an interactive feature, you can see detailed profiles of local news attitudes and behaviors across the United States.

Younger adults in eight Western European countries are about twice as likely as older adults to get news online than from TV. They also are more critical of the media's performance and coverage of key issues.