Americans feel need to limit news intake, poll finds. What issues top the list?

Many Americans feel the need to limit their news consumption — particularly when it comes to political stories, new polling reveals.

In the latest AP-NORC poll, nearly two-thirds of respondents, 65%, said they feel the urge to curb their consumption of media about politics and government.

Just over half of respondents, 51%, said they feel the need to limit their intake of media about overseas conflicts.

Meanwhile, smaller shares felt the need to reduce their consumption of media about jobs and the economy (45%) and climate change (42%).

The poll was conducted between Dec. 5-9 — one month after President-elect Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election. It sampled 1,251 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

The responses varied slightly based on partisan affiliation, with Democrats being more likely than Republicans to limit their intake of media — except on one topic.

When it came to media about government and politics, 72% of Democrats said they felt the urge to reduce their consumption, while 59% of Republicans and 63% of independents said the same.

Similarly, 54% of Democrats said they felt the need to limit their intake of media about foreign conflicts, while 47% of Republicans and 52% of independents said the same.

The partisan differences were the smallest when it came to media consumption about the economy and jobs. Forty-six percent of Democrats felt the need to limit it, compared to 43% of Republicans and independents.

The one topic in which Republicans were more likely to say they limited their intake was climate change.

Nearly half of GOP respondents, 48%, said they felt the urge to reduce their consumption of media about climate change, while 37% of Democrats and 44% of independents said the same.

The poll comes as Americans are expressing record-low levels of trust in mass media. An October Gallup poll found just 31% of respondents had a “‘great deal’ or ‘fair amount’ of confidence in the media to report the news ‘fully, accurately and fairly.’”

This story was originally published December 26, 2024 at 8:09 AM with the headline "Americans feel need to limit news intake, poll finds. What issues top the list?."