A study (http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2011/knowless/) has found that fox news viewers are less informed than people who watch no news at all. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/fox-news-viewers-less-informed-people-fairleigh-dickinson_n_1106305.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003)
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Fox News viewers are less informed than people who don't watch any news, according to a new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
The poll surveyed New Jersey residents about the uprisings in Egypt and the Middle East, and where they get their news sources. The study, which controlled for demographic factors like education and partisanship, found that "people who watch Fox News are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government" and "6-points less likely to know that Syrians have not yet overthrown their government" compared to those who watch no news.
In further news, Fox News viewers remain uninformed about this study, so nothing changes.
Surprise!
Actually, it would be awesome if Fox aired this. The spin would be worth the aneurysm.
THIS JUST IN: LOYAL AMURRICANS LESS SUSCEPTIBLE TO LIBRUL ELITE PROPAGANDA
To be fair, the questions in the poll centered around events in smudgy countries, and Real Americans™ don't care about that. I bet Fox News viewers know more details about Solyndra than people who watch other networks.
There was another poll like this, like maybe 5 or so years ago, that showed that Fox News viewers were more likely than others to believe that WMD's had been found in Iraq, and that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11.
Yeah, even Politifact had its ass whopped re: Fox News watchers being "uninformed" recently when they whacked Jon Stewart across the knuckles for his assertain Fox News watchers were the most "MISinformed" group of people in the nation during an interview with Chris Wallace.
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/23/252113/jon-stewart-1-politifact-0-fox-news-viewers-most-misinformed/
I'm seeing a promising Master's thesis in this for someone. "Uninformed and unaware of it: How difficulties in assessing one's own lack of information lead to inflated self-assessments"
:lulz:
There are now five (5) television broadcasting corporations in the USA. Total.
There are now three (3) companies that run radio stations on a national level. This does not include NPR.
They are not aiming at whatever makes a buck, "news"-wise...The news divisions of the above companies are hemmoraging money. So they're doing what they do for a different reason.
Just saying.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on November 23, 2011, 10:23:25 PM
There are now five (5) television broadcasting corporations in the USA. Total.
There are now three (3) companies that run radio stations on a national level. This does not include NPR.
They are not aiming at whatever makes a buck, "news"-wise...The news divisions of the above companies are hemmoraging money. So they're doing what they do for a different reason.
Just saying.
Yep.
It's part of the political machine. They are in the business of making sure big business stays in politics.
Quote from: Nigel on November 23, 2011, 10:25:02 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on November 23, 2011, 10:23:25 PM
There are now five (5) television broadcasting corporations in the USA. Total.
There are now three (3) companies that run radio stations on a national level. This does not include NPR.
They are not aiming at whatever makes a buck, "news"-wise...The news divisions of the above companies are hemmoraging money. So they're doing what they do for a different reason.
Just saying.
Yep.
It's part of the political machine. They are in the business of making sure big business stays in politics.
Actually, I tend to think that they are simply in the business of making sure America stays either pro-big business or neutralized. They own politicians, they don't need to worry about staying in politics. Congress is a tool for them, in the same way that Bill O'Rielly and Rachel Maddow are.
It seems a little more sinister to me, like trying to make sure america is mostly shit-for-brains imbeciles. I mean, that's the effect of TV and talk radio. :x
I'd like to see the numbers for other stations and news outlets.
At this point, showing FOX News provides biased information is like shoving a retard down a flight of stairs: briefly enjoyable, but not difficult whatsoever. Readers of the NYT and Washington Post, in my experience, are just as likely to be as ill-informed, but only in more socially acceptable (to liberal upper-middle class coast-dwellers) ways
Quote from: Cain on November 24, 2011, 02:02:28 AM
I'd like to see the numbers for other stations and news outlets.
At this point, showing FOX News provides biased information is like shoving a retard down a flight of stairs: briefly enjoyable, but not difficult whatsoever. Readers of the NYT and Washington Post, in my experience, are just as likely to be as ill-informed, but only in more socially acceptable (to liberal upper-middle class coast-dwellers) ways
There were links to five in Jenne's article. (I missed 'em first time through, the links are single-digit numbers.) Some had just Fox/Non-Fox studies, these specified other news agencies
http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Iraq/IraqMedia_Oct03/IraqMedia_Oct03_rpt.pdf
http://www.comm.ohio-state.edu/kgarrett/MediaMosqueRumors.pdf
(These two, I note, are single-issue studies... Areas which a conservative-biased station is likely to spin things ass-backwards.)
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/dec10/Misinformation_Dec10_rpt.pdf
This one seems a better-rounded study, overall, with topics on either side of the fence.
Looking at the end one, it seems to be the case that Fox News viewers are only about 10-15% more misinformed than other consumers of daily news, barring certain key topics (Birtherism). Thats's still a lot, obviously, but it doesn't exactly shine glory on the viewers of MSNBC or CNN, either.
Quote from: Cain on November 24, 2011, 02:32:29 AM
Looking at the end one, it seems to be the case that Fox News viewers are only about 10-15% more misinformed than other consumers of daily news, barring certain key topics (Birtherism). Thats's still a lot, obviously, but it doesn't exactly shine glory on the viewers of MSNBC or CNN, either.
Truth. But I've seen less active misinformation on other news networks than on Fox.
My own personal favorite is mislabeling Republican politicians caught with their pants down or their hands in the cookie jar as Democrats...
http://intershame.com/on/Fox_News
And then, for bonus points, complaining when OTHER news networks failed to mention a political party at all when it was a Democrat in the shit:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,400702,00.html
I've seen some evidence that some Democrats think that the Occupy movement is in line with their politics, ignoring that the Occupy movement condemns the Democrats as much as the Republicans.