Viewers and readers perceive CNN and the New York Times to be the most reliable news sources when compared to FOX, MSNBC, and the Washington Post, according to a study by researchers at a large, mid-Atlantic university.
The study analyzed data collected from over 100 college students who participated in an online survey in which they were asked to scale the “reliability” of various print and broadcast news outlets’ neutrality.
Results from the study yielded a significant connection between the participants political affiliation and their perception of neutrality in news publications like Washington Post, New York Times, MSNBC, and Fox. Specifically, researchers found a significant positive correlation between how liberals, conservatives, and independents rate the reliability of MSNBC’s news, the Washington Post’s news coverage, the reliability of the New York Times, and Fox’s news coverage.
Independents and liberals trusted the perceived neutrality of the New York Times the most while conservative participants trusted Fox news more than any other news outlet. Independent and conservatives trusted the Washington Post the least while liberals showed the lowest perceived trust of Fox news.
Research team member, Zachary Daidone, posed the question of whether the participants’ political affiliation determined the individual’s source for news.
Daidone said that before analyzing the collected data it was assumed that conservatives would find Fox more reliable and MSNBC less reliable.
“We assumed that liberals would find the exact opposite [of what the conservatives perceived.] This, however, wasn’t exactly the case.” Said Daidone, “There is no statistical significance between someone’s political affiliation and where they get their news from, based on our survey results.”
But in determination to understand why certain participants chose specific news sources Daidone explains that if the survey were redistributed to a larger group of people, results would show support that a person’s political affiliation does influence where they get their news.
Of those participating, only two said they most often get their news from MSNBC, and only 8 said they get their news from FOX. The most common choices were Twitter, CNN, and 'Other.'
Daidone explained Twitter was one of the most popular news sources because participants perceive Twitter as the most ‘fun’ in addition to being convenient, fast, and easy.
CNN also ranked with Twitter as the participants’ primary source for news. The survey data proved no statistically relevant data between political affiliation and news perception however, the information determined the reliability of each news source.
Daidone said, “We wanted to know whether CNN’s content was perceived as biased, unbiased, biased towards liberals or conservatives and it turns our CNN had the highest reliability scores out of all the other major broadcast outlets.”
While the data and results were described as valid and significant brevity of survey questions posed a restraint on the group’s findings.
“One of my regrets is that I didn't specifically use Facebook as a news option in my survey,” Daidone said.
Despite limitations, the study data determined CNN as the most used and trusted news source and The New York Times as the most trusted neutral news source among liberal, conservative, and independent participants.
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