Pew Research: satisfication with news media; study in 38 countries

An interesting international survey on attitudes to news media, from Pew Internet. Random surveys of about 1000 people were carried out in each of 38 countries in spring of 2017 (methods are given here). Some snippets from the front page: "rather than being consistently tied to a particular ideological position, satisfaction with the news media across the globe is more closely related to support for the party in power – whether that party is left or right.": so in most countries (though not the USA!) if you support the ruling party, you are more satisfied with the press. "The survey finds that a median of 75% across 38 countries say it is never acceptable for a news organization to favor one political party over others when reporting the news. Just 20% say this is sometimes okay. People in Europe show the greatest opposition to political bias in their news, including 89% in Spain and 88% in Greece who think this is unacceptable."
Younger people are more likely to get news online and be less interested in local news. A global median of 57% of people are interested in news about other countries (in most countries there is most interest in national news, then local news). "The median percentages of people who get news at least once a day through social media are about the same in emerging and developing economies as in advanced ones (33% and 36%, respectively)."

Mitchell, A. et al. (2018, January 11). Publics Globally Want Unbiased News Coverage, but Are Divided on Whether Their News Media Deliver: Deep political divides in many nations on satisfaction with news media; greatest is in the U.S. http://www.pewglobal.org/2018/01/11/publics-globally-want-unbiased-news-coverage-but-are-divided-on-whether-their-news-media-deliver/
Photo by Sheila Webber: sunset over Blackheath, December 2017