‘News fatigue’ now affects 68 percent of Americans, particularly Republicans

A new survey released Tuesday finds that 68 percent of the public feel worn-out by the volume of news they are exposed to on a regular basis.

“If you feel like there is too much news and you can’t keep up, you are not alone,” wrote Jeffrey Gottfried and Michael Barthel, analysts for the Pew Research Center, which conducted the survey. “A sizable portion of Americans are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of news there is, though the sentiment is more common on the right side of the political spectrum.

“While majorities of both Republicans and Democrats express news fatigue, Republicans are feeling it more,” the analysts said. “Roughly three-quarters (77 percent) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents feel worn-out over how much news there is, compared with about six-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (61 percent).”

News fatigue also follows certain patterns, they found.

“Some demographic groups — most notably white Americans — are more likely than others to feel exhausted by the news,” the analysts wrote. “Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of white Americans express fatigue with the amount of news, much higher than among both Hispanic (55 percent) and black Americans (55 percent). Women are also somewhat more likely than men to feel worn-out (71 percent vs. 64 percent, respectively).”

The fatigue is also more pronounced in those who don’t follow the news as much, or among who are not fond of news organizations.

“While a majority of those who follow the news most of the time (62 percent) are feeling worn-out by the news, a substantially higher portion (78% percent) of those who less frequently get news say they are fatigued by the amount of it that they see,” the analysts said.

Those less favorable toward the news media are also the most worn-out. Eight out of 10 of those who think national news organizations fail to inform the public are feeling this exhaustion.

And how do we feel about the quality of coverage these days?

Overall, 17 percent of Americans say national news organizations are doing very well at keeping the public informed of the most important national stories of the day, while a quarter of the respondents give a thumbs-down to the coverage. Fifty-eight percent say the news media do “fairly well.”