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.
Overall, 53% of all respondents knew that Egyptians successfully overthrew Hosni Mubarak and 48% knew that Syrians have yet to overthrow their government.
By contrast, some media sources have a positive effect on political knowledge. For
example, people who report reading a national newspaper like The New York Times or
USA Today are 12-points more likely to know that Egyptians have overthrown their
government than those who have not looked at any news source. And those who listen
to the non-profit NPR radio network are 11-points more likely to know the outcome of
the revolt against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. However, the best informed
respondents are those that watched Sunday morning news programs: leading to a 16-
point increase in the likelihood of knowing what happened in Egypt and an 8-point
increase in the likelihood of knowing what happened in Syria.
"Sunday morning news shows tend to spend a lot more time on a single issue than other
news broadcasts, and they are less likely to degenerate into people shouting at each
other," said Cassino. "Viewers pick up more information from this sort of calm discussion
than from other formats. Unfortunately, these shows have a much smaller audience than
the shouters."
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