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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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 Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:44 pm Post subject: Pew Survey finds FOX News watchers know less.... |
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Well, well, well. Poor stevie and jinju. Now we know why they know so little.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003571876
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Pew Survey Finds Most Knowledgeable Americans Watch 'Daily Show' and 'Colbert'-- and Visit Newspaper Sites
By E&P Staff
Published: April 15, 2007 11:30 PM ET
NEW YORK A new survey of 1,502 adults released Sunday by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that despite the mass appeal of the Internet and cable news since a previous poll in 1989, Americans' knowledge of national affairs has slipped a little. For example, only 69% know that Dick Cheney is vice president, while 74% could identify Dan Quayle in that post in 1989.
Other details are equally eye-opening. Pew judged the levels of knowledgeability (correct answers) among those surveyed and found that those who scored the highest were regular watchers of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Colbert Report. They tied with regular readers of major newspapers in the top spot -- with 54% of them getting 2 out of 3 questions correct. Watchers of the Lehrer News Hour on PBS followed just behind.
Virtually bringing up the rear were regular watchers of Fox News. Only 1 in 3 could answer 2 out of 3 questions correctly. Fox topped only network morning show viewers.
Told that Shia was one group of Muslims struggling in Iraq, only 32% of the total sample could name "Sunni" as the other key group.
The percentage of those who knew their state's governor dropped to 2 in 3. Almost half know that Rep. Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House and 2 in 3 know that Condi Rice is secretary of state. But just 29% can identify Scooter Libby, 21% know Robert Gates and 15% can name Sen. Harry Reid.
But nearly 9 in 10 knew about President Bush's troop escalation in Iraq.
Men scored higher than women, and older Americans did better than younger, on average. Democrats and Republicans were about equally represented in the most knowledgeable group but there were more Democrats in the least aware group. |
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superacidjax
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:54 am Post subject: |
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One would be well-served to look closely at the Pew Foundation and their particular agendas. I suppose you could poll a cross section of America and find whatever you were looking to find, by simply selecting a sampling methodology appropriate to your goals.
Also, the comedy shows regularly engage viewers with particular political figures mixed with comedy, so of course, that information is easier to retain. If you conducted the same survey, I suppose you'd find that viewers of Comedy Central might also be more knowledgeable about Britney Spears than Fox viewers as well. The real question is how fluent are those same viewers when it comes to making policy decisions.
..and where was CNN? |
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EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:59 am Post subject: |
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| Speculation? Got any factual references? (Serious question.) |
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superacidjax
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:17 am Post subject: |
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This is a rather detailed article about how Pew's strong left wing financial afflilitations and the organzations to whom they provide support.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7835
Pew attempts to appear objective, but nearly all of their public opinion polls are skewed to the left. I'm not taking a side, I'm merely stating that a Pew poll that is against Fox News is no suprise.
When I was a journalism major, Pew routinely offered grants for so-call "Citizen Reporting" etc.. to get the grants, you basically had to agree with their leftist goals for the news media and reporting styles.
Like I said, I'm not supporting or decrying what they do. I don't feel like a debate.. I just wanted to give some context to the poll.. |
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shifter2009
Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Location: wisconsin
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:38 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah, polling data like this is often fairly skewed just on the basis of the questions asked and the people you ask. I worked for the Dems for a while and can tell you that its not above EITHER party to put together a poll that skews data for political gain. Really, I kinda wish I could sell my soul and join um, they are brilliant at what they do. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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| superacidjax wrote: |
This is a rather detailed article about how Pew's strong left wing financial afflilitations and the organzations to whom they provide support.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7835
Pew attempts to appear objective, but nearly all of their public opinion polls are skewed to the left. I'm not taking a side, I'm merely stating that a Pew poll that is against Fox News is no suprise.
When I was a journalism major, Pew routinely offered grants for so-call "Citizen Reporting" etc.. to get the grants, you basically had to agree with their leftist goals for the news media and reporting styles.
Like I said, I'm not supporting or decrying what they do. I don't feel like a debate.. I just wanted to give some context to the poll.. |
I'm not familiar with the Pew Group, so perhaps they have, as you say, strong left wing affiliations.
But, can you seriously quote the frontpage site as your source when you're arguing against political bias? It's more contrast than context. Can you not see the irony in that? |
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superacidjax
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| happeningthang wrote: |
But, can you seriously quote the frontpage site as your source when you're arguing against political bias? It's more contrast than context. Can you not see the irony in that? |
I wasn't arguing against the bias or for the bias, I was only merely stating that the results are generally worthless, coming from biased sources. If the Christian Coalition sponsored a survey suggesting that PBS viewers were less intelligent than Old Time Gospel Hour viewers, I'd make the exact same arguement.
Both sides of the political spectrun use statistics and polling to their advantage. The real danger of polls is when the source attempts to appear non-biased and leads people to believe that their results are without predjudice. That's dangerous as it allows groups of a particular flavor to influence public opinion covertly.
All polls are skewed, however at least when the financial orgins of the source are clear, then an educated person (or at least intelligent) can then put the data in the proper context. It's about full disclosure.. something that many "Foundations" and the like often attempt to avoid, lest their credibility be questioned. |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:17 am Post subject: |
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Bias could very easily be a factor...but it seems that the questions were pretty basic:
Who is the president?
Why is the vice President?
Who is your Senator?
I'm not sure there are ways to scew (it's too late and I can't spell squie....whatever...)
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| The real question is how fluent are those same viewers when it comes to making policy decisions. |
hmm....so fox viewers CAN'T name their Senator but they CAN discuss policy decisions?
I'm not sure about that.
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| Democrats and Republicans were about equally represented in the most knowledgeable group but there were more Democrats in the least aware group. |
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