The intense flow of news creates a behavior in the recipient called “News Avoidance,” which refers to people who are so tired of the news that they begin to avoid it. This seems apparent to many Americans heading toward heated presidential elections in November.
A majority of Americans say they are closely following news related to the 2024 US presidential election, a slightly higher percentage than in April 2020.
However, many of them indicate that they are already “exhausted” due to the heavy coverage of the campaigns of the two candidates, Democratic President Joe Biden, and his Republican rival, Donald Trump.
This is the conclusion of a survey conducted by the Center Bio Research, last April, reveals that more than half of Americans (58 percent) follow news related to the candidates for the 2024 presidential elections closely or to some extent. While 28 percent said that they do not follow it closely, and 13 percent do not follow it closely at all.
Why fatigue?
Says study Conducted by the University of Michigan People have more difficulty distinguishing between truth and falsehood in the United States, so some may feel “News Fatigue” and avoid news altogether (News Avoidance).
This is explained as more than just inadvertent avoidance of the news due to lack of media exposure. Rather, the researchers involved in the study say that people are actively and intentionally avoiding the news.
The researchers also found that people who identify as Democrats tend to rely more on nonpartisan media when they feel misled. People who consider themselves Republicans reported using less news media overall.
“The more confusing the news environment, the more actively people avoid the news,” says the study’s lead researcher, Ariel Hassell, an assistant professor of communications and media at the University of Maryland and a faculty member at the Center for Policy Studies. “But it’s not just about the news.”
The study revealed that “avoiding news also includes people’s unwillingness to discuss politics with others. So it’s not just that you don’t consume news, you’re completely removed from debate and discussion.”
But despite fatigue and trying to avoid the news, the data indicates that the percentage of Americans who are closely following news of the 2024 elections now is slightly higher than it was in April 2020.
Exhaustion from covering elections
Charts provided by Pew show that the majority of Americans are exhausted by coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign, except for those who follow the news closely.
Although many Americans are following news about the 2024 presidential candidates, they are also feeling overwhelmed by election coverage.
About six-in-ten American adults (62 percent) say they are already exhausted by too much campaign and candidate coverage, while 35 percent say they like to see more of that coverage.
Trust in the media
Although many Americans say they are following the 2024 election campaign from traditional media, a poll provided troubling results about trust in the media.
About half of Americans (53 percent) say they are very or very concerned that news organizations will provide them inaccurate or misleading information about the election. About 42 percent expressed concern that media outlets will use generative artificial intelligence to create stories, according to the report Poll Which was conducted by the American Press Institute, the Associated Press, and NORC for Public Affairs Research, and its results were published in early May 2024.
The poll found that 47 percent of Americans also express serious concern that the media may publish information that has not been confirmed or verified.
Also, 44 percent are concerned that accurate information will be presented in a way that favors one side over another, meaning that it will suffer from objectivity in processing.
Where do Americans get election news?
Despite fears of declining levels of trust in traditional media, a majority of US adults (62 percent) believe they are getting most of their news about this election from journalists and traditional news organizations.
But it is not clear whether they obtain this news through the traditional stations of these media institutions, such as television, radio, and newspapers, or their social media platforms and the accounts of journalists working in the newsrooms affiliated with these institutions.
Interestingly, according to the Pew poll, about one in 10 Americans (11 percent) said that they get most political and electoral news from friends, family, and neighbors.
A small group said that they get most of this news from celebrities and influential figures on social media platforms (4 percent), politicians and political parties (3 percent), and ordinary people they do not know (2 percent).
17 percent say they do not get most of their political or electoral news from any of these sources.
Old people and young people
It appears that age is a factor influencing the type of media that Americans follow to obtain information about the 2024 elections.
The results of the Pew survey reveal that older Americans get their political and election news from traditional news sources. About 78 percent of people aged 65 or older rely on journalists and news organizations, compared to 45 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 years.
Younger adults most often turn to celebrities and social media influencers (10 percent).
69 percent of Democrats also prefer traditional news sources. And slightly more than 59 percent of Republicans, who are also more likely to not rely on any specific source (20 percent versus 12 percent).
The influence of social media platforms
It seemed clear that a large number of Americans depend on social media platforms to obtain news about the 2024 elections, especially young people, but this raises the risk of exposure to misleading information and campaigns led by external parties to confuse voters.
Is the solution to avoid exposure to social media platforms for fear of being influenced by malicious campaigns?
This appears to be an ineffective solution. In the weeks before and after the 2020 presidential election, researchers conducted a number of… the exams To try to understand the extent to which Facebook and Instagram contribute to the political division in the country.
One such experiment, led by Matthew Gentzko and Hunt Alcott, economics professors at Stanford University, focused on more than 35,000 Facebook and Instagram users who were paid to stay off the platforms in the run-up to Election Day.
This research experiment, the largest ever, aimed to answer the question: Do people’s political attitudes change as a result of them staying away from social media platforms shortly before the elections?
The result revealed that moving away from Facebook and Instagram in the final stretch of the November 2020 vote had little or no impact on people’s political views of the candidates.
But when it comes to Facebook’s influence on what people think about current events, researchers came to an important finding:
Those who stayed away from Facebook had worse answers to news quiz questions, but they were also less likely to fall for the misinformation spread widely on Facebook, suggesting that the platform can be an important conduit for both real and fake news.
Voters and the media…a complex relationship
A majority of Americans, Democrats, Republicans and independents, say they want news organizations to provide information about candidates’ values and political positions to help make their electoral decisions, according to a Pew poll.
This is in general, but in reality, reaching voters effectively requires the American media to provide its audience with a mix of news that attracts them by focusing on their needs and interests.
has shown study About online video content consumption, independent Americans who lean toward the Democratic Party prefer technology news and animation, while independents close to the Republican Party lean toward business news and sports.
The results indicate that effective coverage of elections and attracting an audience depends on the extent to which these components are innovatively combined with election news. In addition, election advertisements must target the right audience in order to be effective and influential.
But there is a challenge that arises in the 2024 elections, as Google’s reduction of cookies may complicate the ability of advertisers and media to reach the right audience.
Google has reduced or stopped third-party cookies with the aim of achieving a balance between user privacy and the interests of advertisers and publishers, which is part of a more transparent and user-centric web browsing experience, which enables individuals to have greater control over their identities online.
In conclusion, experts in media, elections, and political advertising look with concern at the recent transformations in communication technology and social media platforms, and the extent of their impact on the traditional form of presidential elections that the United States witnesses every four years.
But what is certain is that there are major challenges in the way voters consume election news, especially in light of the large flow of misinformation and foreign campaigns that seek to confuse the opinions of American citizens.
Most importantly, dealing with “news fatigue” and “news avoidance” requires effort that goes beyond the boundaries of the media profession, and may amount to the need to understand the psychology of voters’ consumption of news and their interaction with it in the era of advanced communication technology and artificial intelligence that has dazzled the world.