Nearly half of Americans say the news they consume makes them feel informed, but many also associate it with anger, sadness and confusion, according to new survey data released by Pew Research this week.
The findings released on Wednesday are based on a survey of American news consumers conducted earlier this year.
Forty-six percent of respondents said they feel the news is informative “often” or “extremely often,” a sign that the public largely trusts the information coming from mainstream news sources.
But it also found Americans feel anxious and depressed after reading the news: Around 42 percent of respondents say the news makes them feel angry either often or extremely often, and 38 percent say it makes them feel sad with the same frequency. Roughly one in four Americans report that the news makes them feel scared (27 percent) or confused (25 percent) as frequently.
By contrast, far fewer respondents link news consumption to positive emotions. Only 10 percent say it makes them feel hopeful, 7 percent say it makes them happy and another 7 percent say it makes them feel empowered.
The data also shows that emotional responses to news are tied to how closely individuals follow it. Those who consume news all or most of the time are about three times more likely than casual followers to say it frequently makes them feel informed (66 percent compared to 21 percent). But that engagement also appears to heighten negative feelings: 46 percent of the most consistent news consumers say the news often makes them angry, compared to 38 percent among those who follow it the least.
The survey is part of Pew’s ongoing effort to measure how Americans perceive the information they receive and how news exposure shapes their emotional outlook. Researchers said the mix of emotions reflects both the challenges of the modern news environment and the public’s ongoing desire to stay connected to current events.
Pew surveyed 9,482 panelists out of 10,576 who were sampled, yielding a response rate of 90 percent. The survey was conducted between March 10 and 16, with the latest analysis released October 15.
—
Read more:
