A new study is showing that viewers who watch only Fox News are the least informed people in the country . In fact, the study is showing that those who watch Fox News are more uninformed than those who don’t watch any news at all.
Researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University had originally done a study in 2011 that found the exact same statistics. They recently updated the study to find out if they would get the same results nationally that they got in the first study which was only conducted in New Jersey, where the University is located.
The poll interviewed participants about their knowledge of international news (Iran, Egypt, Syria and Greece were included) and news that is strictly for domestic consumption (Republican primaries, Congress, unemployment and the Keystone XL pipeline). The pollsters found that people were usually able to answer 1.8 out of 4 questions on foreign news, and 1.6 of 5 questions on domestic news, and that people who don’t watch any news were able to get 1.22 of the questions on domestic policy right.
Then the study found out that those who watched only Fox News fared much worse than the average.
The study found,
“The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all. On the other hand, if they listened only to NPR, they would be expected to answer 1.51 questions correctly; viewers of Sunday morning talk shows fare similarly well. And people watching only The Daily Show with Jon Stewart could answer about 1.42 questions correctly.”
MSNBC viewers also did worse than those who watch no news at all but only in the international news section of the study.
Among those who did the best in the study are people who only listened to NPR or watched Sunday morning talk shows or “The Daily Show” .
