Survey Finds Concern Over Election Impact of 'Made-Up' News

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

The upcoming election has a lot of people worried about the impact fake and slanted news could have on the outcome.

Related: Pew Launches Election News Pathways Project

According to new data from Pew Research's Election News Pathways Project, 82% of Americans are either very concerned (48%) or "somewhat concerned" (34%) about the impact of "made-up" news.

Those most likely to be very concerned tend to be older and with a greater knowledge of politics. Not surprisingly respondents expected made-up news to be aimed more at their party than the opposition.

The results were based on 12,043 U.S. adults polled from Oct. 29 to Nov. 11, 2019.

The Pathways Project is Pew's effort to explore how American's news habits and attitudes affect their perception of the 2020 election. 

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.