Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
      • Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued abortion isn’t an economic issue. But is that true?

        Chabeli Carrazana · May 4
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • The 19th Explains: Why the nursing shortage isn’t going away anytime soon

        Mariel Padilla · September 23
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A photo illustration of a person speaking in front of multile microphones.
(Rena Li for The 19th)

19th Polling

Americans see the media as critical to democracy. Now what are we going to do with that?

Analysis | Understanding the relationship between voters and the media is critical for those of us whose work tries to bridge the gap.

Errin Haines

Editor-at-large

Errin Haines portrait

Published

2022-09-16 12:31
12:31
September 16, 2022
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

This week, The 19th made history again. Our poll of more than 20,000 Americans across race, age, gender, education, income, and political affiliation, in collaboration with SurveyMonkey, is an illuminating look at the electorate at a critical time for our democracy.

We asked about lots of core issues, including abortion, caregiving, health care and the election. One topic in particular jumped out at me: the relationship between voters and the media, and what it means for our democracy.

We asked people how much they agreed with the statement, “The news media is a critical component of our democracy today” and to tell us how often they see news coverage that accurately reflects issues faced by people like them. Taken together, their answers paint a dissonant picture. While the majority see journalism as a key part of democracy, many feel left out of news coverage.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Particularly striking: Half of Republicans and more than 8 in 10 Democrats see journalism as a key part of democracy — but that same percentage of  Republicans don’t see themselves as part of the story, compared with roughly 1 in 10 Democrats.

This disconnect confirmed for me much of what I’ve known my whole career as a journalist, including as national race writer for The Associated Press, as a former board member of the National Association of Black Journalists and now, as editor-at-large for The 19th. 

An increasingly diverse country does not see itself reflected in the media. Communities of color, LGBTQ+ people and marginalized groups are still underrepresented in both who covers the news and what news is covered. Some White Americans view the country’s diversity and its reflection in the media as a threat to their representation. Audiences are skeptical that we can cover their concerns or communities fully. That concern was seized on, sometimes with violent language, by the former president, who labeled the press an enemy of the people. 

The relationship between voters and the media provides a window into the partisan divide and Americans’ attitudes about the importance of the press to democracy, and is important to understand for those of us whose work tries to bridge the gap. We’re part of the Fourth Estate, as critical to the working of the country as the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

“While it’s reassuring that many of us want good information, the party differences in the poll are telling,” said Laura Wronski, director of research at SurveyMonkey. “This is a big ship we’re all steering collectively, and the media is one element of that.”

The goal of this poll was to understand people’s lived experience and to explore how their different identities factor into their politics, Wronski explained. More than any other identifier, ideological differences trumped all in respondents’ perceptions about the press.

“People are getting their news from different sources, and there’s not a lot of overlap, Wronski said. “What are the longer-term consequences of these differences?


Earlier this year, I was on a panel with former Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan on whether journalism can safeguard democracy. In her final column for The Post last month, the veteran journalist left the industry some parting advice on how to cover the upcoming election, writing: 

“The deeper question is whether news organizations can break free of their hidebound practices — the love of political conflict, the addiction to elections as a horse race — to address those concerns effectively. For the sake of democracy, they must … I hope that newsroom leaders are thinking hard about moving outside their long-standing practice as the presidential campaign approaches. This will not be a traditional contest, and the stakes are high. We simply have to get it right.”

When I called Sullivan and shared the results of our poll — some of which she was able to guess even before I told her  — she said she was “heartened” by the idea that many Americans see journalism as critical to democracy.

  • More from The 19th
    A photo illustration of people inside a voting booth with a cutout of a paper ballot and shapes.
  • The State of Our Nation

“A lot of times, we in the press frame issues about the media in terms of what it means to us, to our colleagues, to our industry,” Sullivan said. “It’s important to broaden that perspective and say, ‘What does this mean for the way our society functions?’ Because our government, our culture do not function without an independent press. Our fellow citizens should care — and the numbers say they do care, but they want it to be better, they want the quality or the connection to be stronger. But it’s not that they don’t see the value.”

The erosion of local journalism, something Sullivan wrote about extensively, informed by her years as editor of the Buffalo News, has also frayed the community fabric, she said. 

Local news subscribers “may know the reporter who’s covering city hall because that reporter’s child may go to your child’s school,” Sullivan explained. “There’s a close community connection. But as that becomes less frequent, there’s less of a chance of that happening. There aren’t as many journalists for the public to have a connection with.”

For those of us who are left, Sullivan said, the damage done in the past few years by President Donald Trump’s attempts to disparage and undercut the press were somewhat effective, but not total or irrevocable. 

“It’s something we need to work on every day,” Sullivan said. “We have to ask ourselves: Are we telling the stories that matter, in a way that people can connect with?”


Centering the voices of people too often unseen and unheard in our democracy is key to our mission at The 19th, and one of the main reasons our newsroom exists. Many of our journalists have lived experiences that can also fall outside of what is considered mainstream, including our data visualization reporter, Jasmine Mithani, whose work was crucial in developing our poll.

I talked to Mithani about why we asked voters about their relationship to the press, and she told me that the aim was to better understand how people view news and to look for areas where there might also be friction — but also to examine the demographic differences not always available when we seek to tell stories about our democracy.

“As someone who personally falls into the ‘other’ race category, I often feel left out,” Mithani said. “Many people at The 19th feel like that, so we took a lot of time thinking about the data we often wish we had.”

In talking to Mithani, I had an exciting realization: Our poll is an extension of the asterisk in our logo, which is a North Star for our newsroom and a reminder that the purpose of our journalism is to show the fullness of our country and our politics. 

“This was a chance for us to put that data out into the world, to ask the questions, to get more information about people who are often overlooked,” Mithani said. “This is something we can do at The 19th, to provide that representation where it’s missing. One way we can do that is through a poll like this.”

Imara Jones, founder of TransLash Media, which uses journalism and personal narrative to tell stories about the lived transgender experience, said the news media does a poor job of covering the LGBTQ+ community broadly — and transgender people in particular.

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

“The lack of representation is amplified, the further you get away from who they believe is their primary audience — namely, White men,” Jones said.

 “This is why you see a rise in the consumption of alternative media for LGBTQ+ audiences, because that’s where they can see themselves reflected,” Jones continued. “If newsrooms want people to engage, they have to expand the ways they cover these communities.”

Our work at The 19th is to expand our country’s imagination about who can, does and should participate in our politics. In doing this poll, we sought to not only inform ourselves, but to inform and serve our audiences and to push other outlets to prove what is possible and to see what they might also be missing. 

This work is also about helping our fellow Americans to see and better understand each other, to be a catalyst for civility and a counterweight to the forces that seek to undermine our efforts to leave behind the most honest and accurate record of who we are. This poll is a reminder that despite our differences or disagreements, we are all in this work together. 

The path forward for our democracy lies in the details behind the data. May we forge ahead, together and more informed.

The State of Our Nation

In the weeks leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, The 19th and SurveyMonkey teamed up to conduct a poll to find out what women, particularly women of color, and LGBTQ+ people think about politics, politicians and policy.
Dive In

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

Up Next

A photo illustration of people inside a voting booth with a cutout of a paper ballot and shapes.

19th Polling

The State of Our Nation

In the weeks leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, The 19th and SurveyMonkey teamed up to conduct a poll to find out what women, particularly women of color, and LGBTQ+ people think about politics, politicians and policy.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram