A new study shows that conservatives and liberals get their news from different sources, with little overlap among news outlets.
The Pew Research Center study found that 47 percent of Americans with “consistent” conservative views say Fox News is their main source for news about government and politics, by far the most dominant news source in the study, and 88 percent say they trust the network.
Among survey respondents who say have have “mostly” conservative views, 31 percent say they get their news mostly from Fox.
Sixty-six percent of consistent conservatives say most of their close friends share their views on government and politics. While on Facebook, they are more likely than those in other ideological groups to hear political opinions that are in line with their own views.
Meanwhile, Americans with a consistent liberal ideology are far less unified in their media loyalty, relying on a greater range of news outlets that include NPR, the New York Times, PBS and the BBC, the study shows. CNN tops the list, with 15 percent of consistent liberals saying it’s their main news source.
Liberals also are more likely than those in other ideological groups to block or “defriend” someone on a social network — as well as to end a personal friendship — because of politics, Pew found. They’re also more likely to follow issue-based groups, rather than political parties or candidates, in their Facebook feeds.
Those with staunch conservative and liberal views do share some common ground; they are much more likely than others to closely follow government and political news, the study shows.
