Americans Who Rely Most on White House for COVID-19 News More Likely to Downplay the Pandemic

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to command Americans' attention, views of the media's performance and details about what people have seen or heard differ substantially depending on which sources they rely on most for news and information about the pandemic. Among five groups of news consu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2020
Main Authors: Mitchell, Amy, Jurkowitz, Mark, Oliphant, J Baxter, Shearer, Elisa
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
COVID-19
Pew Research Center
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:As the COVID-19 crisis continues to command Americans' attention, views of the media's performance and details about what people have seen or heard differ substantially depending on which sources they rely on most for news and information about the pandemic. Among five groups of news consumers examined for this report, one group clearly stands out: Americans who rely most on President Donald Trump and the White House coronavirus task force for news about COVID-19. On each of seven questions concerning the media's coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, those who rely on Trump and the task force give, by a wide margin, the most negative assessments of any group, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted April 20-26, 2020, of 10,139 U.S. adults who are members of the Center's American Trends Panel. Only about a quarter of this group (24%), for example, say media coverage of the outbreak has been largely accurate, while nearly three-quarters (72%) say journalists have been exaggerating the risks of the virus and that coverage has been too negative (73%). Americans who rely most on Trump and the task force also stand out in the coronavirus topics they have been following and claims they are aware of. They are focusing more attention than other groups on the economic impact of the pandemic (with six-in-ten following that topic very closely) and the federal government's response (49%). And six-in-ten also have heard a lot about the unproven claim that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could be useful in treating the virus, a higher portion than any other group.