How Do You Decide What Information to Believe?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/reader-center/trust-news-sources.html Version 0 of 1. We are interested in how you get information and how you feel that has changed. It used to be that Walter Cronkite read the news every night, and Americans tuned in and went to bed with the same set of facts, even if they had different political views. But that news environment is gone. These days there is a sea of information — a lot of it conflicting — and people are left to sort through it. Some people still have one trusted source. Others are choosing to become their own curators, taking in a variety of news sources before deciding whom and what to believe. This is coming at a moment of rising political polarization, when political parties are ever more divided, and the ideological lines have hardened. I’m a reporter on our national desk and I write stories about the political and cultural divide in America. I have taken special interest in people who do not line up with one side or the other — people in the middle who tell me they feel politically homeless. Given this changing environment of both politics and news, I’m wondering if the public is finding it harder to identify what information can be trusted. If you’re interested in talking to me about where you go to find news you can trust for a possible upcoming article, please fill out these questions. I will follow up with a selection of respondents. A note to readers who are not subscribers: This article from the Reader Center does not count toward your monthly free article limit. Follow the @ReaderCenter on Twitter for more coverage highlighting your perspectives and experiences and for insight into how we work. |