In Western Europe, Public Attitudes Toward News Media More Divided by Populist Views Than Left-Right Ideology

In Western Europe, public views of the news media are divided by populist leanings - more than left-right political positions - according to a new Pew Research Center public opinion survey conducted in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Across all...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2018
Main Authors: Mitchell, Amy, Simmons, Katie, Matsa, Katerina Eva, Silver, Laura, Shearer, Elisa, Johnson, Courtney, Walker, Mason, Taylor, Kyle
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Government
Media coverage
Pew Research Center
Social conditions & trends
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In Western Europe, public views of the news media are divided by populist leanings - more than left-right political positions - according to a new Pew Research Center public opinion survey conducted in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Across all eight countries, those who hold populist views value and trust the news media less, and they also give the media lower marks for coverage of major issues, such as immigration, the economy and crime. Trust in the news media dips lowest in Spain, France, the UK and Italy, with roughly a quarter of people with populist views in each country expressing confidence in the news media. By contrast, those without populist leanings are 8 to 31 percentage points more likely to at least somewhat trust the news media across the countries surveyed. In Spain, Germany and Sweden, public trust in the media also divides along the left-right ideological spectrum, but the magnitude of difference pales in comparison to the divides between those with and without populist leanings. When it comes to how the news media perform on key functions, broad majorities of the publics rate the news media highly for generally covering the most important issues of the day.