A new Pew Research poll finds more than two-thirds of Americans are "worn out" by efforts to keep up with the sheer amount of news in 2018, but it's Republicans who report feeling the most overwhelmed.
If you feel like there is too much news and you can’t keep up, you are not alone. A sizable portion of Americans are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of news there is, though the sentiment is more common on the right side of the political spectrum, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted from Feb. 22 to March 4, 2018.
Almost seven-in-ten Americans (68%) feel worn out by the amount of news there is these days, compared with only three-in-ten who say they like the amount of news they get. The portion expressing feelings of information overload is in line with how Americans felt during the 2016 presidential election, when a majority expressed feelings of exhaustion from election coverage.
While majorities of both Republicans and Democrats express news fatigue, Republicans are feeling it more. Roughly three-quarters (77%) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents feel worn out over how much news there is, compared with about six-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (61%). This elevated fatigue among Republicans tracks with them having less enthusiasm than Democrats for the 2018 elections.
Feeling overwhelmed by the news is more common among those who follow the news less closely than among those who are avid consumers. While a majority of those who follow the news most of the time (62%) are feeling worn out by the news, a substantially higher portion (78%) of those who less frequently get news say they are fatigued by the amount of it that they see. (Most Americans – 65% – say they follow the news most of time, whereas 34% say they follow only when something important is happening.)
Those less favorable toward the news media are also the most “worn out.” Eight-in-ten of those who think national news organizations do “not too” or “not at all well” in informing the public are feeling this exhaustion. This is somewhat higher than among those who say the news media do “fairly well” (69%), and much higher than for those who think news organizations do “very well” – of whom 48% say they are worn out by the news and 51% say they like the amount they see. This relationship between attitudes toward the news media and fatigue holds even after accounting for Americans’ political party affiliation.
Americans don't like hearing news that bursts their news bubbles, and the more they think everything is "fake news" the worse that gets. Republicans aren't ignoring news about the comically inept Trump regime, they're internalizing the disconnect and producing outrage and victimization from it and instead channeling that anger towards the messenger.
If there's a model frustrated news consumer in this poll, it's college-educated white women in their 30's and 40's. Some 44% of white college women graduates voted for Trump but they had the least loyalty to his brand...and the most regret for doing so.
So yeah, I bet they are feeling pretty frustrated right now and don't want to hear about the news...especially the ones who voted for Trump. The rest of us are pretty frustrated too...but we voted for the non-orange person.
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