• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 12, 2024

With the election less than a few weeks away, voters are fretting about inaccurate news. Of U.S. adults, 37% have seen inaccurate news very often and 36% somewhat frequently, according to a new report from Pew Research Center: American’s Views of 2024 Election News. 

In general, 52% say it is difficult to determine what is true and what is not, while 47% claim it is easy. But it depends on the person’s political views.  

Fully 51% of Republicans say they have seen inaccurate reporting very often and 24% at least part of the time. Moreover, 51% of Republicans say it is difficult to determine what is true, compared to 42% of Democrats.  

Meanwhile, 62% of Democrats say they have been exposed to inaccurate coverage, 27% very often.  

Of all U.S. adults, only 13% say the news media are covering the election very well, while 45% say they doing somewhat so. 

But 60% of Republicans say the coverage is not very good, while 77% of Democrats believe it is.   

This comes at a time when Americans are closely following the election. In September, 69% paid attention to it, compared to 66% in September 2020. These numbers can be expected to increase in October.  

Here’s the breakdown of who is closely following election news: 

• All U.S. adults—69% 
• Men—75% 
• Women—63% 
• Ages 18-29—53%
• Ages 30-49—60% 
• Ages 50-64—78% 
• Ages 65+—85%
• H.S. or less—61%
• Some college—69% 
• College+—76% 
• White—75% 
• Black—60% 
• Hispanic—57% 
• Asian—68% 

Want to boost your reader engagement during this period? Here are the topics people are extremely or very interested in: 

• Candidates’ stances on issues—75% 
• Candidates’ moral characters—60% 
• Candidates’ career experiences—49%
• Candidates’ actions, comments on the campaign trail—49% 
• Which candidate is leading in the race—42% 
• Candidates’ personal lives—14% 

However, the topic they see the most news about is candidates’ actions, comments on the campaign trail (40%). Voters apparently have a more practical outlook than the media. 

Of course, the two political sides favor different news sources.  

The study shows that 82% of Democrats, or those who lean in that direction, use ABC, CBS or NBC as a source of political news, versus 54% of Republicans.  

In contrast, 69% of Republicans use Fox News, compared to 32% of Democrats. 

In addition, 56% of Democrats use MSNBC, as do only 26% of Republicans. And 53% of Democrats see The New York Times as a source and 45% The Washington Post.  

However, only 24% of Republicans cite the Times and 22% the Post. 

Republicans tend to favor conservative talk radio, including Sean Hannity or Mark Levin—42% do, compared to 14% of Democrats.  

Where are younger people getting their political news? Of those under 30, 46% say it is social media. And 10% turn to TV. 

For people age 65 and over, TV is the most popular choice. 

Whatever your persuasion, won't you be glad when this is over?

Pew surveyed 9,680 of its American Trends panelists from Sept. 16-22.