Research

In this report, part of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Trust, Media and Democracy initiative, Gallup asked a representative sample of U.S. adults to discuss key factors that make them trust, or not trust, news media organizations. Key findings:

In 2017-18, the percentages of female characters on screen and women working in key roles behind the scenes declined on television. Overall, females comprised 40% of all speaking characters on television programs appearing on the broadcast networks, cable, and streaming services, a decline of 2 percentage points from 42% in 2016-17.  Behind the scenes, women accounted for 27% of all creators, directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and directors of photography working on programs delivered via the various platforms last year.

The Federal Communications Commission released updated data on fixed broadband deployment and mobile voice and broadband deployment as of June 30, 2017. These data were collected through FCC Form 477 and are available on the Commission’s website.

Fast, reliable internet service has become essential for everything from getting news to finding a job. But 24% of rural adults say access to high-speed internet is a major problem in their local community, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted earlier in 2018. An additional 34% of rural residents see this as a minor problem, meaning that roughly six-in-ten rural Americans (58%) believe access to high speed internet is a problem in their area.

About two-thirds of American adults (68%) say they at least occasionally get news on social media, about the same share as at this time in 2017, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Many of these consumers, however, are skeptical of the information they see there: A majority (57%) say they expect the news they see on social media to be largely inaccurate. Still, most social media news consumers say getting news this way has made little difference in their understanding of current events, and more say it has helped than confused them (36% compared with 15%).

This survey is the second wave of an ongoing study tracking social media use among American teenagers: how often they use social media such as Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook; their attitudes about social media’s role in their lives; experiences they have on social media; and how social media makes them feel. As such, it offers a unique opportunity to observe changes in social media use over time, and to deepen our understanding of the role of social media in teens’ lives. Some key findings:

In a paper commissioned by NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association and USTelecom, the authors examine communications networks, road networks, and electric power networks as three key network infrastructure industries; and the resulting vulnerability in low-density rural areas with the highest need for targeted subsidies. By the very nature of network economics, each industry exhibits economies of density and each reaches a point at which un-subsidized provision of service in low-density areas is not viable.

Racist and anti-Semitic content has surged on shadowy social media platforms — spiking around President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day and the “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville (VA) — spreading hate speech and extremist views to mainstream audiences, according to a recent analysis. The findings, from a newly formed group of scientists named the Network Contagion Research Institute who studied hundreds of millions of social media messages, bolster a growing body of evidence about how extremist speech online can be fueled by real-world events.

Notable shares of Facebook users ages 18 and older lack a clear understanding of how the site’s news feed operates, feel ordinary users have little control over what appears there, and have not actively tried to influence the content the feed delivers to them. When asked whether they understand why certain posts but not others are included in their news feed, around half of US adults who use Facebook (53%) say they do not – with 20% saying they do not understand the feed at all well.