A new survey on what Americans know about politics and politicians shows not much has changed in the last 20 years, despite the rise of the digital age and constant cable news. The survey from the Pew Research Council notes that only 69% of those surveyed could name the vice-president, for example.
There are certainly more ways to get information today, but has it made much difference? The result seems to be a rather loud "No". The graphic at the left, from the survey, indicates people who watch "The Daily Show" and "The Colber Report" know more than most folks.The summary says:
"Since the late 1980s, the emergence of 24-hour cable news as a dominant news source and the explosive growth of the internet have led to major changes in the American public's news habits. But a new nationwide survey finds that the coaxial and digital revolutions and attendant changes in news audience behaviors have had little impact on how much Americans know about national and international affairs."
You might like to take their news quiz too -- I scored a rating that said I rated a higher score than 77% of those already rated. Which may mean I have loads of useless knowledge or that I know less about a heap of other things than I do about the political realm in America.
Welln guess what,I scored 77% also.Guess I'm full of useless knowledge too.I still think our legislators should be picked by lottery(as per my earlier post).
ReplyDeleteJames, perhaps we should try something like the selection used for jury duty, for all offices local to national. you serve one term, get paid a stipend, and then must go home. and lobbyists are banned altogether.
ReplyDeletewhaddya think?
I also got a 77%. I missed the minimum wage question (I thought only the House passed). When I got it wrong, it skipped the second minimum wage question, so the deck was stacked against me! Huh! BTW, I really want to do jury duty, but haven't been picked in YEARS.
ReplyDeleteLOL...up until about 3 years ago, all of my political knowledge was from Rush Limbaugh. hee!
ReplyDeleteSee?! My boyfriend is performing a great public service!
ReplyDeleteI got 91%...only missed how many troops Bush wanted to deploy..I thought it was much more than it actually was.
ReplyDeletewell my score was not in the A or A+ range but hopefully that means I can still enjoy the satire Tit's boyfriend, Mr Colbert, and sorta shows no matter how much I try and stay up to speed on the news, plenty of details fall prey to poor memory and scattered attention.
ReplyDeletelike Kathy i missed the fact that the Senate ok'd a minimum wage increase, but I did read today that bill is going nowhere and may be tacked on the the Iraqi funding bill which the President vows to veto.
no matter how much I might know, others know more and many know less.
My results...
ReplyDelete"Thank you for taking our News IQ quiz. You correctly answered 9 of the 9 possible questions along with approximately 4% of the public. You did better than 96% of the general public."
So there!
show off!
ReplyDelete