MediaWatch: January 1997
Table of Contents:
NewsConsumers Turn to the Internet
An End Run Around Bias
Post-election polls determined that most Americans realize the media favor liberal candidates and policies, leading many to turn to the Internet to get political news.
In a Washington Post poll taken immediately after the November election, 62 percent of Dole voters considered coverage of their candidate to be "too negative." But just 21 percent of Clinton voters felt the media were too negative on him while 71 percent said reporting on Clinton was "about right."
Just 33 percent believe the media "deal fairly with all sides" in social and political reporting found a November Louis Harris and Associates poll commissioned by the Center for Media and Public Affairs. Nearly three of four (74 percent) of the 3,000 people surveyed observe a "fair amount" or a "great deal" of political bias in the news. Asked to describe the media's political perspective, 43 percent called it liberal, 19 percent as conservative and 33 percent as middle of the road. Harris found that 58 percent believe the press exerts "too much influence."
As news consumers grow disturbed by the media's liberal tilt they are logging on. About 12 percent of Americans "go online to get information on current events, public issues and politics," found a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey released in December. These are the most politically savvy Americans. While 59 percent of the public overall "watched television news yesterday," 72 of regular online news consumers had seen TV news and wanted more.
Asked why they get election news online, 53 percent explained they "don't get all the information they want from traditional news sources," 45 percent said it's more convenient and 26 percent replied that online services provide "information not available elsewhere." But "the most popular destinations" for those dissatisfied with the media "remained the Web sites of traditional news organizations."
Not surprisingly, "Republicans and independents who lean Republican were more likely to cite the limitations of traditional news sources than Democrats and Democratic leaners (57 vs. 49 percent)."
