Most Americans feel overwhelmed or exhausted by the amount of news there is, a new survey by the Pew Research Center finds.
The survey, conducted from Feb. 22 to March 4, discovered that only 3 in 10 people said they were happy with the amount of news they received.
Republicans were more likely to acknowledge news fatigue than Democrats, with 77 percent of Republicans or Republican-leaning independents saying they were worn out by the amount of news. A majority of Democrats – 61 percent – were exhausted by it.
Americans were also feeling information overload during the 2016 election campaign, Pew said.
Avid news consumers were less likely to suffer news fatigue than those who were less engaged, the survey said. For those who follow the news “most of the time,” 62 percent reported news fatigue, compared with 78 percent of those who said they followed the news “only when something important is happening.”
People who had a less favorable view of the news media were more likely to say they were fatigued. Eight in 10 of those who said the national news organizations were doing “not too well” or “not at all well” in informing the public acknowledged this exhaustion. Among people who said the news media did “fairly well,” 69 percent reported news fatigue. Only 48 percent of those who claimed news organizations do “very well” said they were worn out by the news.
White people were more likely to feel news fatigue than black or Hispanic people, the survey said. And women were more likely than men to be worn out by the news.