Are you smarter than a Fox News viewer?

[biobengal]

Interesting poll I found on Christian Science Monitor asking respondents about topics of the day and their news outlet of choice. They say:

The survey found that "substantial levels of misinformation were present in the daily consumers of all news sources." But Fox News viewers were significantly more likely to be misinformed than those who get their news from other sources. And, greater exposure to Fox News increased the degree to which viewers were misinformed.

I did fairly well, although, I also watch Fox News a fair bit. These results, if they are valid, don't strictly indicate that Fox News viewers are getting misinformation, it could also indicate self-sorting on the part of viewers (i.e. uninformed viewers tend to prefer Fox News).

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/1221/ ... o-find-out" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dbackjon]

No kidding!

[native]

The "quiz" combines matters of fact with matters of opinion. Some of the actual answers to the questions posed are not knowable, and some of the explanations are a bit of a "bait and switch" from the wording of the question itself.

As long as you remember that the CSM (to which I subscribed for five years) has a vested interest in attacking Fox News, read the questions carefully, and take the quiz with your eyes wide open, you will be able to ace the quiz.

Performing well or poorly on the quiz has not much to do with either how smart or how well informed you are.

[Ivytalk]

I did well on the quiz, but I get most of my info from the newspapers!

[Wedgebuster]

Anybody that misses more than about 4 of these needs to broaden their news gathering horizon significantly, or quit trying to be informed all together.

[native]

Anybody that misses more than about 4 of these needs to broaden their news gathering horizon significantly, or quit trying to be informed all together.

Anyone who misses more than about 4 of the questions needs to work on reading comprehension before bothering with where they get their news.

[kalm]

Not sure if this is the same poll, but

The study was conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org, a project that is managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

According to the study, which can be reviewed online, in most cases, the more a person watched and read the news, the less likely they were to have been misled about the facts. But “there were however a number of cases where greater exposure to a news source increased misinformation on a specific issue,” the study’s authors wrote. In particular, they found that regular viewers of the Fox News Channel, which tilts to the right in prime time, were significantly more likely to believe untruths about the Democratic health care overhaul, climate change and other subjects.

The study found other cases where greater exposure to media meant greater misinformation on a subject. Regular viewers of MSNBC, which tilts to the left in prime time, were 34 percentage points more likely than nonviewers to believe “that it was proven that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was spending money raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates.” Consumers of public broadcasting were 25 points more likely to believe the same.

But the study found many more instances that involved Fox News.

“Almost daily” viewers of Fox News, the authors said, were 31 points more likely to mistakenly believe that “most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit”; were 30 points more likely to believe that “most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring”; and were 14 points more likely to believe that “the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts.”

They were also 13 points more likely to mistakenly believe “the auto bailout only occurred under Obama”; 12 points more likely to believe that “when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it”; and 31 points more likely to believe that “it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States.”

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... y-tv-news/

[Wedgebuster]

PT Barnum knew Fox News was viable.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

I got 1 of them right.

Granted I selected the correct answers but the biased test was slanted towards people of my ethnicity.

[GrizFanStuckInUtah]

When the questions asks what your impressions are, I'm not sure how they can say it is wrong. I mean, some people think Big foot exists and their impression is that he is real..............I've seen him in jerky commercials, but that is about it.

[Pwns]

This is the document that is being cited as "proof" Fox News viewers are more ignorant than viewers of other networks.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/ ... quaire.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There authors don't compare answers of viewers of different networks. Don't know where all this nonsense is coming from.

Also, where do they come off saying those who don't think the economy is getting better are "misinformed"?

[Skjellyfetti]

There authors don't compare answers of viewers of different networks. Don't know where all this nonsense is coming from.

Um, yeah they do. Start on page 19
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/ ... 10_rpt.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kalm]

Ahem:

But the study found many more instances that involved Fox News.

“Almost daily” viewers of Fox News, the authors said, were 31 points more likely to mistakenly believe that “most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit”; were 30 points more likely to believe that “most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring”; and were 14 points more likely to believe that “the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts.”

They were also 13 points more likely to mistakenly believe “the auto bailout only occurred under Obama”; 12 points more likely to believe that “when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it”; and 31 points more likely to believe that “it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States.”

[Wedgebuster]

No shit?

FN is used as elevator music in my town.

[JMU DJ]

Apparently the Japanese version of "Dunkaroos" is onto something:

[blueballs]

Oh Yeah?!?!?!!!!!????

Well, Fox News has the most and highest quality pussy on its channel. So there!

[ATrain]

I think the questions are deliberately worded to cause people who don't think more than 2 seconds about them to miss it.

MOST scientsits DO agree climate change is occuring, but are divided as to the cause. If there were more options, I believe MSNBC viewers would more likely to answer something like "Most scientists believe climate change is occuring and casued by human activities."

[Bronco]

No surprise that the Obama puppet master Soros and his Tide Foundation funded the “study” along with the other usual hard left organizations such as the Ploughshare Fund.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/ ... p?nid=&id=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kalm]

No surprise that the Obama puppet master Soros and his Tide Foundation funded the “study” along with the other usual hard left organizations such as the Ploughshare Fund.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/ ... p?nid=&id=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You should probably just answer the thread title "no".

[blueballs]

No surprise that the Obama puppet master Soros and his Tide Foundation funded the “study” along with the other usual hard left organizations such as the Ploughshare Fund.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/ ... p?nid=&id=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No surprise there... kick over the rock and see the cockroaches.