Summary

Research indicates that consuming Fox News, particularly through its television channel and website, is associated with a decrease in viewers' knowledge and understanding of current events and societal issues, even more so than not watching any news at all.

Abstract

Multiple studies conducted over several years have consistently shown that watching Fox News can negatively impact viewers' cognitive abilities, making them less informed about both domestic and international issues. The channel, despite being a ratings leader, has been found to hinder the acquisition of new knowledge and distort existing understanding. In contrast, other sources such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have been shown to be more informative. The problem is exacerbated for those who visit the foxnews.com website, where a significant negative correlation has been observed between website usage and accurate knowledge of politics, science, and society. These findings align with concerns about media consumption and its influence on public perception, as highlighted by former U.S. President Barack Obama, who noted that Fox News viewers often perceive a different reality than consumers of other news sources.

Opinions

The author suggests that Fox News viewers may be less informed than those who do not watch any news, implying a negative effect of Fox News on public knowledge.
There is a clear opinion that Fox News not only fails to educate its viewers but also potentially misinforms them, as evidenced by studies showing a negative relationship between watching Fox News and understanding of factual information.
The article posits that partisanship does not explain away the negative effects of watching Fox News, indicating that the issue transcends political affiliation.
The author expresses a view that the influence of Fox News is not limited to television but extends to its online presence, with the foxnews.com website contributing to a decrease in society-oriented knowledge.
The piece implies that the problem of misinformation is not new and has been a characteristic of Fox News since its inception in 1996.
Former President Barack Obama's comment is used to reinforce the opinion that Fox News creates a skewed perception of reality among its viewers.

Transgender Soapbox

Science Proves (Again) That Watching Fox News Makes You Dumber Than Not Watching Any News At All

So why can’t we stop watching?

Graphic by me, photo from Billy Madison (Universal Pictures)

If watching Fox News makes people dumb, why do we keep watching?

Aside from the paradox that the dumber you are, the harder it is to perceive your own dumbness…

Note: this is also available as a video or podcast

Who likes Fox News?

As far as ratings go, Fox News is #1.

Despite its clever branding claiming otherwise, Fox News Channel (FNC) is far and away the most popular mainstream cable news network. Since its inception in 1996, the channel has grown bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

But in 2012, a much-publicized study revealed a shocking crack in the Faux News facade.

Trouble in Bill O’Reilly’s paradise

The 2012 study showed that watching Fox News (and MSNBC lol) often made people dumber than if they hadn’t watched any news at all.

But it wasn’t until I looked into what inspired that study — and the results of similar studies being conducted again and again — that I discovered just how bad the problem is.

Fox News: making people dumb since 1996

LOL so there was just one study?

Nope. There were five-ish (2011, 2012, 2016, 2020, and a case study of the 2020 study).

In 2011 and 2012, two Public Mind studies provided four key findings.

watching Fox News was terrible if you wanted to learn anything you didn’t already know
watching Fox News was terrible if you didn’t want to warp your understanding of anything you already knew
watching Jon Stewart/The Daily Show helped you more than virtually any other news source
partisanship didn’t change the results

But while watching Fox News makes you dumb, you really need to hear how much worse it is for people who go to the Fox News website.

The foxnews.com bust

In 2020, a study utilized the 2016 American National Election Survey (ANES) to investigate whether consuming content from foxnews.com is associated with decreased political knowledge.

The study found a “significant, negative relationship between visiting foxnews.com and facts about society writ large,” what the researcher distinguished as “society-oriented knowledge.”

“Examples of society-oriented knowledge included whether unemployment had gotten better or worse over the past year, whether Barack Obama was a Muslim, and whether the world’s temperature had been slowly increasing over the past 100 years.” — Consuming content from Fox News is associated with decreased knowledge of science and society

It’s not like it told us anything we didn’t already suspect

But still, isn’t it nice to know that you’re not crazy?

That the people who watch Fox News really do tend to be less informed?

That even you can’t help but walk away from their programming (and their website?!) feeling a little more dumb just for having given them a shot?

“I’ve spoken about this before, but if you watch Fox News, you perceive a different reality than if you read The New York Times. And those differences have been amplified by social media, which allows people to live in bubbles with other people who think like them.” -Barack Obama, “Fox News viewers ‘perceive a different reality’ than other Americans”

The end (of the article)

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