{"id":1593,"date":"2017-05-12T16:30:20","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T16:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/?p=1593"},"modified":"2017-05-12T16:30:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T16:30:20","slug":"understanding-political-polarization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/2017\/05\/12\/understanding-political-polarization\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding political polarization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have long used the data collected by the PEW Research Center when I write about the educational use of technology. The Research Center collects data on a wide range of topics and is careful about the survey methodology employed making it a source I trust. The Center offers useful insights into other issues and has long provided information on political matters. In 2014, the Center <a href=\"http:\/\/www.journalism.org\/2014\/10\/21\/political-polarization-media-habits\/\">sought to understand media consumption by those labeling themselves as having different political values<\/a>. The following is their summary contrasting the 20% who label themselves as consistent conservatives or consistent liberals. There is are positive and negative factors (according to my interpretation) in each category.<\/p>\n<p>[the following content excerpted from the PEW site &#8211; see the link above for additional information]<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Overall, the study finds that consistent conservatives:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are tightly clustered around a single news source, far more than any other group in the survey, with <a id=\"twt1\" class=\"tweetable\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=http:\/\/pewrsr.ch\/mediapolarization&amp;text=47%25%20of%20consistent%20conservatives%20say%20%40FoxNews%20is%20their%20main%20source%20for%20news%20about%20government%20and%20politics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">47% citing Fox News as their main source for news about government and politics.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Express greater distrust than trust of 24 of the 36 news sources measured in the survey. At the same time, fully 88% of consistent conservatives trust Fox News.<\/li>\n<li>Are, when on Facebook, more likely than those in other ideological groups to hear political opinions that are in line with their own views.<\/li>\n<li>Are more likely to have friends who share their own political views. Two-thirds (66%) say most of their close friends share their views on government and politics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">By contrast, those with consistently liberal views:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are less unified in their media loyalty; they rely on a greater range of news outlets, including some \u2013 like NPR and the New York Times\u2013 that others use far less.<\/li>\n<li>Express more trust than distrust of 28 of the 36 news outlets in the survey. <a id=\"twt2\" class=\"tweetable\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=http:\/\/pewrsr.ch\/mediapolarization&amp;text=.%40nprnews%2C%20%40PBS%20and%20%40BBCNews%20are%20the%20most%20trusted%20news%20sources%20for%20those%20with%20consistently%20liberal%20views\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR, PBS and the BBC are the most trusted news sources for consistent liberals.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Are more likely than those in other ideological groups to block or \u201cdefriend\u201d someone on a social network \u2013 as well as to end a personal friendship \u2013 because of politics.<\/li>\n<li>Are more likely to follow issue-based groups, rather than political parties or candidates, in their Facebook feeds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have long used the data collected by the PEW Research Center when I write about the educational use of technology. The Research Center collects data on a wide range of topics and is careful about the survey methodology employed &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/2017\/05\/12\/understanding-political-polarization\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,3],"class_list":["post-1593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-media","tag-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1594,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions\/1594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}