PJ 2024.10.10 2024-Election-News Report
PJ 2024.10.10 2024-Election-News Report
PJ 2024.10.10 2024-Election-News Report
BY Elisa Shearer, Michael Lipka, Sarah Naseer, Emily Tomasik and Mark Jurkowitz
RECOMMENDED CITATION
Pew Research Center, October 2024,
“Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
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The survey of 9,680 U.S. adults was conducted from Sept. 16 to 22, 2024. Everyone who
completed the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people
recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take
surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection.
Surveys were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is
weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan
affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
Here are the questions used for this report, the topline and the survey methodology.
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the
latest report in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and
journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with
generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
www.pewresearch.org
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Table of contents
About Pew Research Center 1
How we did this 2
Table of contents 3
1. How closely are Americans following election news, and what are they seeing? 12
The 2024 campaign events that Americans have heard or read about most 15
What Americans want in campaign coverage – and what they actually see 17
2. Where Americans turn for election news 19
Which news organizations Americans turn to for election news 21
3. How Americans feel about election coverage 25
Broad assessments of election coverage 27
Election news fatigue 32
4. Accuracy of election news 34
Determining what is true and what’s not 37
Acknowledgments 39
Methodology 40
The American Trends Panel survey methodology 40
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that they are having a hard time sorting out Rep/Lean Rep 51% 34% 14%
the truth.
▪ And Republicans are less likely than Dem/Lean Dem 24 38 36
Democrats to say it is easy for them to find
reliable information about the election (29% … and most Republicans say they find it
vs. 52%, respectively). difficult to determine what’s true
% who say they generally find it ___ when getting news
Overall, Americans are much less likely to be and information about the presidential campaign and
candidates
wary of the information from their most
frequent sources of election news. Much Difficult to Easy to determine
smaller shares say they at least sometimes see determine what is what is true and
true and what is not what is not
inaccurate information from the sources they
Rep/Lean Rep 61% 38%
turn to most often for news and information
about the election than say the same about
Dem/Lean Dem 42 58
election news in general.
Note: Respondents who did not answer are not shown.
At the same time, people also say inaccurate Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 16-22, 2024.
“Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
information is coming from sources other than
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news outlets: 58% of Americans say they have
heard people they know share information
about the election that they think is inaccurate at least somewhat often. There is little difference
between the parties on this question – Republicans and Democrats say they hear inaccurate
information from their personal circles at roughly the same rates.
Jump to more information about Americans’ views on the accuracy of election news.
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How Americans’ attention toward election news has changed throughout the campaign
Overall, about seven-in-ten
Americans say they are About 7 in 10 Americans are closely following news
following news about the about 2024 presidential candidates
candidates for the 2024 % of U.S. adults who say they have been very/fairly closely following
presidential election very news about candidates for the presidential election
About six-in-ten Americans say they are worn out by so much coverage of the campaign, while
nearly four-in-ten say they like seeing a lot of coverage. These shares are similar to those measured
in April, as well as in surveys conducted in 2020 and 2016.
Jump to more about how much attention Americans are paying to election news.
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What kinds of news about the election are Americans seeing – and what do they want to
see?
The survey asked Americans
how much they have heard Majorities of Americans have heard a lot about Harris
about several specific election- replacing Biden, Trump’s July assassination attempt,
related topics that have been in and the presidential debate in September
the news in recent months. % of U.S. adults who have heard or read ___ about …
A lot A little
We found that most people say Kamala Harris replacing Joe Biden
as the Democratic candidate 70% 25%
they have heard or read a lot
about Vice President The attempted assassination
66 29
of Donald Trump in July
Kamala Harris replacing
President Joe Biden as the The debate between Kamala Harris
64 30
and Donald Trump
Democratic nominee (70%),
JD Vance, Trump’s vice
the first assassination presidential candidate 36 47
attempt on former
Tim Walz, Harris’ vice
President Donald Trump in presidential candidate
32 47
July (66%), and the debate
The Democratic National
between Harris and Trump 29 45
Convention in August
on Sept. 10 (64%). (The survey The Republican National
24 49
questions were finalized before Convention in July
the second assassination Former independent candidate
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 22 55
attempt on Trump in endorsing Donald Trump
September.) Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 16-22, 2024.
“Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
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Smaller shares say they have
heard a lot about the vice
presidential candidates, the two parties’ national conventions, and third-party candidate
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsing Trump when he dropped out of the race. Still, large majorities
of Americans say they have heard at least a little about each of these topics.
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About half of Americans (49%) say they are extremely or very interested in the candidates’ career
experiences, while just 3% say this is the topic they see the most news about.
Jump to more information about what election news topics Americans are seeing.
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Note: Respondents who did not give an answer or who said “Some
other way” are not shown.
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 16-22, 2024.
“Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
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The survey also asked about several specific news outlets as sources of political and election news;
there was little change on these questions since 2020. About two-thirds of Americans say national
TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) are at least a minor source of political and election news for
them, including three-in-ten who cite this as a major source. CNN and Fox News are each sources
of election news for about half of Americans, with about two-in-ten naming each cable news
network as a major source.
Smaller shares cite other outlets as major or minor sources of election news, including MSNBC,
The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post and conservative talk radio.
say CNN is at least a minor Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 16-22, 2024.
source of political and election “Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
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news for them.
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This year, the rise in attention to the election has been driven by
Democrats. While Republicans and independents who lean Republicans, Democrats
toward the GOP were somewhat more likely than Democrats now following election
and Democratic leaners to be following the election at least
news at equal rates
% who say they have been very/
fairly closely in April and July, the two parties are now about
fairly closely following news about
equally likely to say they are following news about the candidates for the presidential
candidates very or fairly closely (70% vs. 71%, respectively). election
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Men 75
Women 63
Ages 18-29 53
30-49 60
50-64 78
65+ 85
H.S. or less 61
Some college 69
College+ 76
White 75
Black 60
Hispanic 57
Asian* 58
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In a 2024 presidential
The election-related events and people Americans
campaign season that has seen
have heard about most
a number of major and
% of U.S. adults who have heard or read ___ about …
dramatic events, three of them
stand out in terms of the A lot A little
public’s exposure to that news. Kamala Harris replacing Joe Biden
70% 25%
as the Democratic candidate
Finally, reinforcing reports of a large viewing audience, 64% of Americans say they heard a lot
about the Sept. 10 ABC debate between Trump and Harris.
Much smaller shares say they have heard or read a lot about several other topics mentioned in the
survey. These include the vice presidential candidates, Republican JD Vance (36%) and Democrat
Tim Walz (32%); the Democratic (29%) and Republican (24%) National Conventions; and third-
party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsing Trump when he withdrew from the race (22%).
Still, large majorities say they have heard at least a little about each of these topics.
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Four-in-ten Democrats say they heard or read a lot about the Democratic National Convention,
compared with 21% of Republicans who say the same. Republicans are more likely than Democrats
to say they heard a lot about the Republican National Convention, but the gap is smaller (29% vs.
20%).
Republicans are modestly more likely than Democrats to say they have heard or read a lot about
Kennedy endorsing Trump when he dropped out of the race (27% vs. 19%).
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Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are considerably more likely than Republicans
and GOP leaners to be highly interested in the candidates’ moral characters (69% vs. 52%).
The survey also asked which of these six types of election news Americans see most often, and the
top areas of interest for Americans do not always line up with what they are actually seeing the
most news about.
By far, the leading topic seen by Americans is news about the candidates’ actions and
comments on the campaign trail: 40% say they see the most news about this, even though it
is not among the top two topics in terms of interest.
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Smaller shares say they see the most news about the candidates’ stances on issues (17%), the
candidates’ moral characters (14%) or the political horse race (13%). Just 8% say the most
common type of election news they see involves the candidates’ personal lives, while 3% most
often see news about the candidates’ career experiences.
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Social media 20
Smaller shares turn primarily to search engines
Search through Google
like Google (8%) or to radio or podcasts (5% 8
or other search engines
each). And just 3% of U.S. adults say print Radio 5
newspapers or magazines are their most
Podcasts 5
common way of getting election news.
Print newspapers
3
or magazines
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Note: Respondents who did not give an answer or who said “Some
Republicans and Democrats are mostly similar other way” are not shown.
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 16-22, 2024.
in which platforms they use for political news. “Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
For example, about a third of Republicans and PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Republican leaners get political news from
television (34%), identical to the share of
Democrats and Democratic leaners who say the same.
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Both The New York Times (38%) and The Washington Post (32%) remain sources of election news
for many Americans, although the shares who turn to these traditional newspapers have declined
modestly since 2020 (from 42% and 39%, respectively).
About a third of Americans name NPR (34%) as at least a minor source of election news, while
27% use conservative talk radio, such as Sean Hannity or Mark Levin (27%). The share who cite
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talk radio as at least a minor source of election news is identical to 2020, when the question
named Rush Limbaugh as an example before his death in 2021.
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By contrast, younger
Republicans are more likely
than older Republicans to use
several other sources, including
The New York Times, The
Washington Post and CNN.
Compared with their elders, younger Democrats are less likely to use the network TV stations or
MSNBC as sources of election news – in line with the broader pattern that older Americans are
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more likely to name TV as their most common source for such news. But Democrats of different
age groups use CNN as a source of election news at nearly identical rates.
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▪ Conservative Republicans are slightly more likely than Republicans who describe themselves
as moderate or liberal to say it’s been difficult to find reliable information (42% vs. 35%).
▪ Liberal Democrats are more likely than conservative or moderate Democrats to say that
finding reliable information has been easy (62% vs. 44%).
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By party
As in 2020, Republicans are much more critical
Republicans are more critical of news
of election coverage than Democrats. Six-in-ten
media coverage of the election
Republicans say the news media have not
% who say the news media have covered the presidential
covered the 2024 presidential campaign well, election …
compared with just 22% of Democrats who hold
this view. Among Among
Rep/Lean Rep Dem/Lean Dem
18 21
And among Republicans, conservatives (69%)
are much more likely than those who identify as 5% 6
Very well
moderate or liberal (47%) to think the news 58 56
Somewhat well 34% 33
media are not doing a good job covering the
2024 election.
19 19
Not too well 36% 34
5 3
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Americans’ views of news sources they turn to most for election news
Americans are much more positive in their
assessments of the sources they turn to most Most Americans think their own news
often for news about the presidential election sources cover the election well
than they are about the news media as a whole. % of U.S. adults who say the news sources they turn
to most often have covered the presidential election …
Not Not
Around eight-in-ten U.S. adults (81%) say the Very Somewhat too at all
news sources they turn to most often have well well well well
covered the 2024 election very (27%) or Sep ’24 27% 54% 15% 3%
somewhat (54%) well. Far fewer say their go-to
sources have covered the presidential election Oct ’20 30 53 12 4
sources.
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By party
Even when it comes to the news sources they
Democrats more likely to say their go-to
use most often, Republicans are twice as likely
sources are covering the election well
as Democrats to say these sources have not
% who say the news sources they turn to most
covered the 2024 election well (22% vs. 11%). often have covered the 2024 presidential election …
Not Not
But Republicans see their own main sources of Very Somewhat too at all
well well well well
election news in a much more positive light
Rep/Lean
23% 55% 18% 4%
than the news media in general. The vast Rep
majority of both Republicans (77%) and Dem/Lean
33 55 10 1
Democrats (87%) say their most-used news Dem
sources have covered this election cycle at least Note: Respondents who did not answer are not shown.
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 16-22, 2024.
somewhat well. “Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
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27% 31 25 17
There are not substantial differences between
the two major political parties on this question.
Note: Respondents who did not answer are not shown.
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 16-22, 2024.
“Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
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Dem/Lean Dem 8 21 70
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Around half (52%) say they Difficult to determine what Easy to determine what
generally find it difficult to is true and what is not is true and what is not
determine whether election
Sep ’24 52% 47%
news is true or not, slightly
more than the share who find it
Oct ’20 55 45
easy to determine (47%).
Note: Respondents who did not answer are not shown.
These numbers are similar to Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 16-22, 2024.
“Americans’ Views of 2024 Election News”
the last time we asked this PEW RESEARCH CENTER
question in October 2020,
when 55% of U.S. adults said it
was difficult to distinguish truth from fiction.
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Acknowledgments
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the
latest report in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and
journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with
generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This report is a collaborative
effort based on the input and analysis of the Center’s news and information research team, politics
research team, methods, communications, design, digital and editorial teams. Find related reports
online at pewresearch.org/topic/news-habits-media/.
Research
Elisa Shearer, Senior Researcher
Michael Lipka, Associate Director, News and Information Research
Sarah Naseer, Research Analyst
Emily Tomasik, Research Assistant
Mark Jurkowitz, Senior Writer
Katerina Eva Matsa, Director, News and Information Research
Carroll Doherty, Director, Political Research
Kirsten Eddy, Senior Researcher
Luxuan Wang, Research Associate
Jacob Liedke, Research Analyst
In addition, the project benefited greatly from the guidance of the Pew Research Center
methodology team: Courtney Kennedy, Andrew Mercer, Ashley Amaya, Dorene Asare-Marfo,
Dana Popky, Anna Brown and Arnold Lau.
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Methodology
Overview
Data in this report comes from Wave 155 of the American Trends Panel (ATP), Pew Research
Center’s nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. The survey was
conducted from Sept. 16 to 22, 2024. A total of 9,680 panelists responded out of 10,627 who were
sampled, for a survey-level response rate of 91%.
The cumulative response rate accounting for nonresponse to the recruitment surveys and attrition
is 3%. The break-off rate among panelists who logged on to the survey and completed at least one
item is 1%. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 9,680 respondents is plus or minus
1.3 percentage points.
SSRS conducted the survey for Pew Research Center via online (n=9,391) and live telephone
(n=289) interviewing. Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish.
To learn more about the ATP, read “About the American Trends Panel.”
Panel recruitment
Since 2018, the ATP has used address-based sampling (ABS) for recruitment. A study cover letter
and a pre-incentive are mailed to a stratified, random sample of households selected from the U.S.
Postal Service’s Computerized Delivery Sequence File. This Postal Service file has been estimated
to cover 90% to 98% of the population.1 Within each sampled household, the adult with the next
birthday is selected to participate. Other details of the ABS recruitment protocol have changed
over time but are available upon request.2 Prior to 2018, the ATP was recruited using landline and
cellphone random-digit-dial surveys administered in English and Spanish.
A national sample of U.S. adults has been recruited to the ATP approximately once per year since
2014. In some years, the recruitment has included additional efforts (known as an “oversample”)
to improve the accuracy of data for underrepresented groups. For example, Hispanic adults, Black
adults and Asian adults were oversampled in 2019, 2022 and 2023, respectively.
1 AAPOR Task Force on Address-based Sampling. 2016. “AAPOR Report: Address-based Sampling.”
2 Email pewsurveys@pewresearch.org.
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Sample design
The overall target population for this survey was noninstitutionalized persons ages 18 and older
living in the United States. All active panel members were invited to participate in this wave.
Incentives
All respondents were offered a post-paid incentive for their participation. Respondents could
choose to receive the post-paid incentive in the form of a check or gift code to Amazon.com,
Target.com or Walmart.com. Incentive amounts ranged from $5 to $15 depending on whether the
respondent belongs to a part of the population that is harder or easier to reach. Differential
incentive amounts were designed to increase panel survey participation among groups that
traditionally have low survey response propensities.
For panelists who take surveys online: Postcard notifications were mailed to a subset on
Sept. 16.3 Survey invitations were sent out in two separate launches: soft launch and full launch.
Sixty panelists were included in the soft launch, which began with an initial invitation sent on
Sept. 16. All remaining English- and Spanish-speaking sampled online panelists were included in
the full launch and were sent an invitation on Sept. 17.
3 The ATP does not use routers or chains in any part of its online data collection protocol, nor are they used to direct respondents to additional
surveys. Postcard notifications for web panelists are sent to 1) panelists who were recruited within the last two years and 2) panelists
recruited prior to the last two years who opt to continue receiving postcard notifications.
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Panelists participating online were sent an email invitation and up to two email reminders if they
did not respond to the survey. ATP panelists who consented to SMS messages were sent an SMS
invitation with a link to the survey and up to two SMS reminders.
For panelists who take surveys over the phone with a live interviewer: Prenotification
postcards were mailed on Sept. 11, and reminder postcards were mailed on Sept. 16. Soft launch
took place on Sept. 16 and involved dialing until a total of four interviews had been completed. All
remaining English- and Spanish-speaking sampled phone panelists’ numbers were dialed
throughout the remaining field period. Panelists who take surveys via phone can receive up to six
calls from trained SSRS interviewers.
Weighting
The ATP data is weighted in a process that accounts for multiple stages of sampling and
nonresponse that occur at different points in the panel survey process. First, each panelist begins
with a base weight that reflects their probability of recruitment into the panel. These weights are
then calibrated to align with the population benchmarks in the accompanying table to correct for
nonresponse to recruitment surveys and panel attrition. If only a subsample of panelists was
invited to participate in the wave, this weight is adjusted to account for any differential
probabilities of selection.
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Among the panelists who completed the survey, this weight is then calibrated again to align with
the population benchmarks identified in the accompanying table and trimmed at the 1st and 99th
percentiles to reduce the loss in precision stemming from variance in the weights. Sampling errors
and tests of statistical significance take into account the effect of weighting.
Note: Estimates from the ACS are based on noninstitutionalized adults. Voter registration is
calculated using procedures from Hur, Achen (2013) and rescaled to include the total U.S.
adult population.
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The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that
would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the survey.
Sample sizes and sampling errors for other subgroups are available upon request. In addition to
sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in
conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.
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