Fake News: What makes a news story truly trustworthy?

Fake News is the topic of our age. Pew recently ran a poll asking people this question and so it is perhaps worth mulling over the results that the poll reveals. As an insight into where I’m going with this, my argument here is that while Pew is a reliable polling organisation, this specific poll is seriously flawed.

What Exactly did this new Pew Poll do?

Like any good poll should do, they are very explicit about their methodology and document all the details.

Basically they used a nationally representative survey of 12,045 U.S. adults that was conducted between March 8 to March 14, 2021. They also utilised news coverage of the first 60 days of the Biden administration. They go into a great deal of detail, so much so, that if you have trouble sleeping at night, then reading their methodology is a potential remedy.

I have no problem with the methodology, it is wholly reasonable.

The types of questions they asked are exactly as you might anticipate them to be. Here are some samples …

• How closely, if at all, have you been following news about… [and they randomly picked topics such as COVID or the Biden admin]
• What news source do you turn to most often for political news?