University Study Finds Fox News Viewers Score Below Non-News Watchers
A nationally representative study from Fairleigh Dickinson University confirmed what an earlier New Jersey-focused survey had suggested: Americans who relied exclusively on Fox News for current events information scored lower on knowledge tests than people who watched no news at all.
The researchers had first published these findings in 2011 using a sample drawn only from New Jersey residents. That initial study found that Fox News-only viewers were 18 points less likely to know that Egyptians had overthrown their government and 6 points less likely to know that Syrians had not yet overthrown theirs, compared to people who consumed no news media whatsoever.
National Survey Confirms the Pattern
The expanded nationwide study measured how well Americans could answer basic questions about current events. On average, respondents correctly answered 1.8 out of 4 international news questions and 1.6 out of 5 domestic news questions. People who reported watching no news at all averaged 1.22 correct answers on domestic questions.
Fox News-only viewers, however, were expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly, performing significantly worse than the no-news baseline. By contrast, NPR-only listeners scored 1.51 correct answers, Sunday morning talk show viewers performed similarly well, and viewers of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart answered approximately 1.42 questions correctly.
Partisanship Alone Did Not Explain the Results
The study controlled for political party affiliation, which meant the findings could not simply be attributed to Republicans being more likely to watch Fox News. As Fairleigh Dickinson Professor Dan Cassino explained, the data indicated that something about Fox News viewership itself was associated with lower performance on current events knowledge tests, independent of the political leanings of viewers.
The results raised broader questions about how different media sources shape public understanding of national and international events, and whether certain editorial approaches to news coverage might leave audiences less informed rather than more so.
