170420

For immediate release Thursday, April 20, 2017 7 pages

Contact: Dan Cassino [redacted]; dcassino@fdu.edu @dancassino

Staying Informed Across the Garden State

Where do You Go and What do you Know?

Fairleigh Dickinson University, April 20, 2017 – Not all news is created equal, at least according to where Garden State residents say they get their news and information about state and national issues. The most recent survey from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind finds television reigns when it comes to national news sources, but newspapers draw the greatest audience when state and local news is what residents seek. Also, some news sources are associated with better informed viewers and readers relative to others.

If you’re looking for information about, for example, the president and Congress, you’re likely to find a majority of Garden Staters turning to national TV news (58%) or cable TV news (51%). However, if the governor and state legislature are the subjects of interest, then newspapers – both print and online – reign (58%), with local TV news a double digit second (48%).

“This is good news for newspapers,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of political science and analyst for PublicMind. “Newspapers have been hit hard in recent years with declining ad revenues and the end of classifieds. The fact that they’re still the most trusted source for local news is a bright spot.”

The online world of news and information garners considerable readers for both state and national news. A third (33%) of New Jersey residents say that they use social media, with 42 percent who turn to online news other than social media and online newspapers “regularly” when seeking national news. Slightly fewer turn to the same sources for news about more local matters: 31 percent say they use social media and 35 percent turn to online news other than social media and online newspapers “regularly” for information about what’s going on in New Jersey.

Younger New Jersey residents, in the so-called Millennial generation, are especially likely to report getting their news from social media and online sources. Sixty-one percent of the 18-34 crowd turn to social media for national news, compared with 28 percent of those between the ages of 35 and 59, and only 11 percent of the 60 and older demographic. Similar differences can be found for online news, other than social media and online newspapers: over half of 18-34 year-olds (53%) use this source regularly, compared with 36 and 39 percent for their older cohorts.

The same is true for locally oriented news. Over half of Millennials (56%) turn to social media, with only 27 percent of those aged 35-59 and 10 percent of those 60 and older. Smaller differences are present for other online news sources. Forty-one percent of the under 35 crowd turn here, with 34 percent of those 35-59 and 32 percent of 60+ residents using these sources for state and local news.

“People who have grown up on social media don’t seem to see any reason to get news about the world any other way,” said Cassino. “The real question for the media as a whole is if these preferences will change, if millennials will start getting the newspaper as they get older.”

The same survey also finds a relationship between what people know and where they get their news and information. To measure how much they actually know about current events, respondents on the poll were asked a series of five political knowledge items. These ask about knowledge of figures in the news (including Paul Ryan, Rex Tillerson and Theresa May) and facts about issues and government, like which party has more seats in the House, and the contents of the recent House bill aimed at repealing parts of Obamacare. On average, New Jersey residents answered 3.4 of these questions correctly, with Democrats and Republicans being about equally accurate, and independents lagging behind, with only about 2.9 questions correct, on average.

Generally, New Jersey residents who regularly get their news from newspapers for both national and state information are the most informed, garnering an average of 3.9 correct answers to the five question political knowledge test. But, television and cable news isn’t too far behind for both national and state news. Differences across mediums are not statistically significant, however. Regular social media users are, on average, among the least informed. However, it’s again important to note that differences across mediums are smaller than those related to other factors.

“The sort of news that gets shared on social media is more likely to be sensationalistic, or even false than what gets reported in newspapers, or on television,” said Cassino. “So it’s not surprising that reliance on such sources leaves its readers less informed.”

Part of the difference in knowledge levels may be because social media users are different in other ways than consumers of other news sources. Democrats (37%) are more likely to report regularly getting their national news through social media than Republicans (26%), with the biggest difference being between white and African-American voters. Fifty percent of minority respondents report getting their news through social media, compared to 24 percent of whites. Similar differences for social media use can be found when the focus is on local or state oriented news.

Interestingly, New Jersey Democrats are more likely to be reading newspapers than Republicans in the state. Forty-nine percent of Democrats report regularly reading a newspaper to get news about national issues with 60 percent saying the same for state news, compared with 44 percent of Republicans looking for national news and 60 percent seeking news about the state.

“Nationwide, Democrats have been increasingly engaged in politics after the last Presidential election,” said Cassino. “Subscribing to a newspaper has become an act of protest for some Democrats, and we can see that increase in the numbers.”

Methodology, questions, and tables on the web at: http://publicmind.fdu.edu

Radio actualities at [redacted] For more information, please call [redacted]

Methodology - The Fairleigh Dickinson University poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone March 22-26, 2017 among a random sample of 816 adults in New Jersey. Results have a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.8 percentage points, including the design effect.

Survey results are also subject to non-sampling error. This kind of error, which cannot be measured, arises from a number of factors including, but not limited to, non-response (eligible individuals refusing to be interviewed), question wording, the order in which questions are asked, and variations among interviewers.

PublicMind interviews are conducted by Opinion America of Cedar Knolls, NJ, with professionally trained interviewers using a CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) system. Random selection >is achieved by computerized random-digit dialing. This technique gives every person with a landline phone number (including those with unlisted numbers) an equal chance of being selected.

The total combined sample is mathematically weighted to match known demographics of age, sex, race, and education. 448 interviews were conducted on landlines and 368 were conducted on cellular telephones.

The sample was purchased from Marketing Systems Group and the research was funded by Fairleigh Dickinson University.

PublicMind recently received an “A” rating from statistician Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog. The ratings measure both accuracy and bias for all major polling services in the United States, providing an update to similar research the poll watchers conducted in 2014. PublicMind’s “A” rating puts it in the top 14 of the more than 380 polling institutes reviewed and graded from A+ through F. PublicMind was found to have a 94 percent accuracy rate for predicting election results, and is one of only two A-rated polling institutes with zero bias to their rankings.

Tables

When you want to know what’s going on across the COUNTRY, which of the following sources do you use on a regular basis?
		PID	Gender	Race	Education	Age	PK*
	All	Dem	Ind	Repub	Male	Female	White	Non-white	HS/Some college	College+	18-34	35-59	60+	Avg
Radio	29%	29	33	31	29	29	29	29	30	29	29	29	30	3.4
Local TV news	37%	41	38	33	37	37	36	41	42	33	32	40	38	3.3
Cable TV news	51%	50	46	58	57	45	51	51	49	53	46	52	54	3.7
National TV news	58%	64	55	55	56	60	61	55	54	63	56	56	66	3.7
Newspapers, including online	47%	49	53	44	49	46	50	43	43	52	38	47	57	3.8
News magazines	15%	16	17	14	14	16	14	18	11	19	17	13	17	3.5
Social media	33%	35	35	27	28	38	24	50	34	32	61	28	11	3.3
Online news, other than social media and newspapers	42%	43	45	38	39	45	39	45	37	46	53	36	39	3.6
Other	2%	1	6	1	1	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	1	2.9
DK (vol)	1%	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	1	2.6
Refused (vol)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

*Average number of items correct on five question political knowledge scale

When you want to know what’s going on across the STATE, which of the following sources do you use on a regular basis?
		PID	Gender	Race	Education	Age	PK*
	All	Dem	Ind	Repub	Male	Female	White	Non-white	HS/Some college	College+	18-34	35-59	60+	Avg
Radio	38%	39	42	36	37	39	39	38	37	39	33	45	36	3.4
Local TV news	48%	51	47	42	46	50	48	48	52	45	41	52	49	3.6
Cable TV news	41%	40	40	42	41	40	40	42	47	36	36	38	49	3.7
National TV news	37%	39	41	30	33	41	35	40	45	31	36	34	42	3.6
Newspapers, including online	58%	60	65	51	59	57	60	54	52	63	58	56	61	3.9
News magazines	14%	16	17	8	12	15	12	16	12	15	14	15	13	3.7
Social media	31%	34	30	25	27	35	23	45	33	29	56	27	10	3.3
Online news, other than social media and newspapers	35%	34	38	32	34	36	32	39	34	36	41	34	32	3.7
Other	3%	3	9	1	3	3	2	2	2	4	1	4	3	3.3
DK (vol)	1%	2	1	1	2	0	1	2	2	1	2	0	2	2.6
Refused (vol)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

To the best of your knowledge, does the health care bill that was recently introduced in the US House of Representatives by Republicans repeal all of the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, some of the Affordable Care Act, or does it repeal none of the Affordable Care Act?
		PID	Gender	Race	Education	Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Repub	Male	Female	White	Non-white	HS/Some college	College+	18-34	35-59	60+
Repeals all	20%	22	19	17	19	21	17	25	16	22	27	17	17
Repeals some	62%	61	59	67	61	64	68	51	58	65	53	65	68
Repeals none	10%	10	10	9	12	8	8	14	14	7	10	11	8
DK (vol)	7%	7	10	6	8	7	6	10	11	5	10	7	6
Refused (vol)	1%	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	1

To the best of your knowledge, what is Paul Ryan’s current position? Is he…
		PID	Gender	Race	Education	Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Repub	Male	Female	White	Non-white	HS/Some college	College+	18-34	35-59	60+
Secretary of State	4%	5	7	2	3	6	2	9	7	3	11	3	1
Vice-President	1%	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
Speaker of the House	74%	76	66	77	78	70	78	67	65	80	60	77	83
Senate Majority Leader	10%	10	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	8	11	10
DK (vol)	11%	9	16	12	9	13	9	15	17	7	21	8	6
Refused (vol)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

To the best of your knowledge, what is Rex Tillerson’s current position? Is he…
		PID	Gender	Race	Education	Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Repub	Male	Female	White	Non-white	HS/Some college	College+	18-34	35-59	60+
Secretary of State	58%	58	51	62	65	51	65	41	44	67	38	62	69
Senate Majority Leader	7%	7	6	6	5	8	5	10	9	5	9	7	5
Vice-President	0%	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	4%	4	4	5	4	5	3	7	5	4	7	4	2
DK (vol)	31%	29	39	27	26	36	26	42	42	23	46	28	22
Refused (vol)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

To the best of your knowledge, what is Theresa May’s current position? Is she…
		PID	Gender	Race	Education	Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Repub	Male	Female	White	Non-white	HS/Some college	College+	18-34	35-59	60+
Secretary of Commerce	8%	10	5	8	8	8	8	8	7	9	12	8	5
Senate Majority Leader	1%	1	2	1	1	1	2	0	1	1	2	1	1
Secretary of Energy	5%	3	8	7	6	5	5	6	6	5	4	7	5
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	50%	56	34	51	52	48	53	45	37	60	31	55	60
DK (vol)	35%	30	52	32	33	38	33	41	49	25	51	29	29
Refused (vol)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

Which party currently has the most seats in the US Senate?
		PID	Gender	Race	Education	Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Repub	Male	Female	White	Non-white	HS/Some college	College+	18-34	35-59	60+
Republicans	88%	91	78	91	88	88	91	82	82	93	79	92	91
Democrats	7%	5	14	7	7	7	5	12	11	4	12	5	5
DK (vol)	5%	4	8	2	4	5	4	7	7	3	9	3	3
Refused (vol)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

Average number of correct responses to political knowledge questions (range from 0-5)

PID

Gender

Race

Education

Age

All

Dem

Ind

Repub

Male

Female

White

Non-white

HS/Some college

College+

18-34

35-59

60+

3.4

3.5

2.9

3.6

3.5

3.3

3.6

2.9

3.7

2.7

3.6

3.8

Question wording and order

US1 through US5 released March 6

US6 and US7 withheld

NJ1 through NJ6 released March 4

NEWS1 When you want to learn about what’s going on in the state, which of the following sources do you use on a regular basis? [Can choose multiple sources]

1 Radio

2 Local television news

3 Cable television news

4 National television news

5 Newspapers, including those found online

6 News magazines

7 Social media, such as Twitter and Facebook

8 Online news sources other than social media and newspapers

9 Other

98 DK

99 Refused (vol)

NEWS2 When you want to know what’s going on across the country, which of the following sources do you use on a regular basis? [Can choose multiple sources]

1 Radio

2 Local television news

3 Cable television news

4 National television news

5 Newspapers, including those found online

6 News magazines

7 Social media, such as Twitter and Facebook

8 Online news sources other than social media and newspapers

9 Other

98 DK

99 Refused (vol)

CONS1 through CONS4 released April 12, 2017

ROTATE PK SERIES

PK1 To the best of your knowledge, does the health care bill that was recently introduced in the US House of Representatives by Republicans repeal all of the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, some of the Affordable Care Act, or does it repeal none of the Affordable Care Act?

1 Repeals All

2 Repeals Some [correct response]

3 Repeals None

8 Don’t Know

9 Refused (vol)

PK2 To the best of your knowledge, what is Paul Ryan’s current position? Is he…

1 Secretary of State

2 Vice-President

3 Speaker of the House

4 Majority Leader of the Senate

8 Don’t Know

9 Refused (vol)

PK3 To the best of your knowledge, what is Rex Tillerson’s current position? Is he…

1 Secretary of State

2 Majority Leader of the Senate

3 Vice-President

4 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

8 Don’t Know

9 Refused (vol)

PK4 To the best of your knowledge, what is Theresa May’s current position? Is she…

1 Secretary of Commerce

2 Majority Leader of the Senate

3 Secretary of Energy

4 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

8 Don’t Know

9 Refused (vol)

PK5 Which party currently has the most seats in the Senate? [rotate options]

1 Republicans [correct response]

2 Democrats

3 Don’t Know

4 Refused (vol)

Sample characteristics (weighted)

Gender	Male	49%
	Female	51%
Age	18-34	28%
	35-59	41%
	60+	30%
	Refused	1%
Race	White	64%
	African American	13%
	Hispanic	15%
	Asian	5%
	Other/Refused	3%
Party (with leaners)	Dem	51%
	Ind/DK/Refused	21%
	Repub	28%