It would make sense that those whose political party is in power would be extra sensitive to negative news coverage, going so far as to accuse the press of being unfair. It would also make sense that those whose party is out of power would be more appreciative of unflattering and tough news reporting, staking the opposite position that media are doing their job well.
But the opposite of this is generally true, according to the Pew Research Center, which published a massive report this month on international attitudes toward media — except, that is, in the United States.
In the U.S., the partisan gap between those who think the press is doing a good job and those who disagree is so great that the land of the free took the top spot in a poll of 38 surveyed countries.
A person’s politics is the best indicator of whether he believes the press is doing its job well, the polling firm found. In fact, they reported, personal politics is the single strongest indicator of attitudes toward media, more so than age or education.
“Political party systems vary considerably across countries, but one consistent measure for comparing political divides is support for the governing party or parties,” Pew explained in a report released this month.
To do its ranking of surveyed countries, Pew categorized those who back the current controlling party or parties as “supporters,” and everyone as “non-supporters.”
“Using this approach, large gaps in ratings of the media emerge between governing party supporters and nonsupporters,” Pew reported. “On the question of whether their news media cover political issues fairly, for example, partisan differences appear in 20 of the 38 countries surveyed.”
The survey, which was conducted from Feb. 16 to May 8, 2017, and polled some 41,953 respondents, came up with this notable discovery: “In five countries, the gap is at least 20 percentage points, with the largest by far in the U.S. at 34 percentage points. The next highest partisan gap is in Israel, with a 26-point difference.”
In the United States, roughly 55 percent of Pew survey respondents categorized as “non-supporters” said they believe “news organizations … are doing well at reporting different positions on political issues fairly.” Of the “supporters,” only 22 percent said the same.
The only other two countries where Pew found something similar were Israel and Australia, where the partisan gap is 26 and nine percentage points, respectively.
But here’s something else that Pew found about the states: “The U.S. is also one of only a few countries where governing party supporters are less satisfied with their news media than are non-supporters. In most countries, people who support the political party currently in power are more satisfied with the performance of their news media than those who do not support the governing party. For example, in Sweden, the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party are the two parties that currently form the governing coalition in the country. About eight-in-ten Swedes (82 percent) who identify with these two parties say their news media do a good job of covering political issues fairly. Just 58 percent of Swedes who do not identify with these two parties agree.”
The report added: “The partisan gaps found in the survey indicate that, rather than being consistently tied to a particular ideological position, satisfaction with the news media across the globe is more closely related to support for the party in power – whether that party is left or right. Public satisfaction with the news media also links closely to trust in one’s national government and a sense that the economy is doing well, which reinforces the point that, for most countries surveyed here, satisfaction with the media aligns with satisfaction on other country conditions rather than along a left-right spectrum.”
Perhaps the feeling of dissatisfaction in the U.S. for media from the “supporter” category can be attributed to the fact that the quality and reliability of political journalism in America took a nosedive during President Trump’s first year in office. Just a guess.
