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The rise of informal news networks
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March 23, 2021, 3:05 p.m.
LINK: www.journalism.org  ➚   |   Posted by: Hanaa' Tameez   |   March 23, 2021

Fox News reaches nearly half of American adults and over 60 percent of Republican-leaning adults, according to a new Pew Research Center report.

The study surveyed 12,045 American adults between March 8 and March 14, 2021, and found that 43% of American adults got at least some political news from Fox News that week, compared to 10% who got some news from NewsMax and 7% who got some news from One America News (OAN). The findings suggest that Fox News may not have to worry too much about NewsMax and OAN cutting into its viewership after all.

“While Fox does well among its conservative Republican core audience, it is also used by substantial portions of Democrats and ideologically moderate and liberal Republicans, according to the survey,” Pew’s Amy Mitchell writes. “And it attracts roughly equal portions of White, Black and Hispanic Americans.”

Sixty-two percent of Republican and Republican-leaning adults consumed Fox News in that week in March, along with 28% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults. Just over 20% of Republicans said they watched Newsmax and 14 percent watched OAN. Among Democrats, only 1% said they watched either.

Fox News, of the three channels, attracts the most diverse viewership, Pew found, drawing “roughly equal levels of audience across White (44%), Black (47%) and Hispanic adults (41%). Among Asian Americans surveyed, fewer (29%) said they got political news from Fox in the past week.”

Meanwhile, 13% of white adults had watched NewsMax; 2% of Black adults, 5% of Hispanic adults, and 8% of Asian adults had. Eight percent of white adults, 1% of Black adults, 4% of Hispanic adults, and 6% of Asian adults said they’d watched OAN.

Fox News was more popular among adults older than 50, but has strong viewership of adults under 50 as well. Thirty-nine percent of adults between ages 30 and 49 said they got political news from Fox News while just six and five percent said the same about Newsmax and OAN, respectively. Thirty-seven percent of adults between 18 to 29 got political news from Fox News while six percent said the same about both Newsman and OAN.

Read the full report here.

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