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Americans Put News Verification on Individuals as Most Shun Paying, Pew Finds

The nationally representative study also finds high self-confidence alongside low trust in others’ ability to verify information.

Overview

  • Forty-four percent of U.S. adults say individuals should be most responsible for knowing how to check if news is accurate, ahead of news organizations at 22% and schools at 9%.
  • Republicans are more likely than Democrats to assign responsibility to individuals (52% vs. 37%), while Democrats are more likely to point to teachers or schools (14% vs. 4%).
  • Most Americans feel confident in their own ability to verify a news story (79% at least somewhat confident), but only 3% are very confident that others could do so.
  • Eighty-three percent did not pay for any news in the past year, and just 8% say individuals have a responsibility to pay for news.
  • Many believe news outlets are financially doing at least somewhat well, and more prefer advertising or sponsorship as the main revenue source (45%) than subscriptions or memberships (11%), with limited support for government funding (10%).