Americans Grapple With Recognizing Facts in News Stories

Americans Grapple With Recognizing Facts in News Stories
Bowen Xiao
6/18/2018
Updated:
6/19/2018

A new study by the Pew Research Center found that only a quarter of American adults could fully identify factual statements—versus statements of opinion—in news stories.

The survey, published on June 18, comes amidst rising concerns of “fake news,” a term used to describe made-up news that is presented as being factually accurate.

Pew polled 5,035 adult Americans aged over 18 and asked them to correctly identify five factual statements and five opinion statements.

Only 26 percent of surveyors could identify all five factual statements, while 35 percent could correctly identify all five opinions.

Regular internet users categorized as being “digitally savvy” were able to identify the opinion statements correctly 44 percent of the time.

Bowen Xiao was a New York-based reporter at The Epoch Times. He covers national security, human trafficking and U.S. politics.
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