Poll: Americans Think that Television Networks Give too Much Attention to Celebrity Scandals

A new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center reveals that an overwhelming majority of Americans are irritated and tired about the excessive attention that celebrity scandals are receiving by the mainstream media.

The survey was conducted between July 22nd and July 27th via telephone interviews and included 1,027 adults nationwide.

Participants were first asked to gauge the attention that celebrity scandals received in the media. An overwhelming majority (87%) stated that these types of news stories received too much information as a whole. Eight percent of respondents said that the amount of news coverage for celebrities was adequate with 2% of participants stating that the level of celebrity scandal stories was insufficient. Three percent had no opinion.

Pew analysts also inquired about who was chiefly to blame for the dissemination of these stories. More than half of Americans (54%) said that news organizations were primarily responsible for the excessive coverage of celebrity scandals. Almost one-third (32%) of Americans conveyed that the general public was to blame for giving too much attention to gossip involving famous personalities. Twelve percent of respondents said that both the media and the public were equally accountable for the excessive attention to celebrity infamy. Two percent said neither or did not know.

Demographically, a slightly higher number of women than men (55% vs 52%) blamed news organizations for the excessive reporting of scandals. Also, Republicans were somewhat more likely to assign fault to the media than the Democrats (57% vs 52%).

As per the Pew report, almost half of respondents under the age of 30, held the public accountable on the basis of their appetite for scandal and gossip, whereas less than one-third (31%) of individuals in this group, specifically blamed news organizations.

Survey participants were also asked which types of news organizations gave these kinds of celebrity stories the most coverage. More than one-third of Americans (34%) said that cable news networks were dedicating to much attention to celebrity scandals. The most common cited networks were CNN, MSNBC, and the Fox News Channel. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said that the main three TV networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) were also directing too much attention to celebrity gossip.

Fifteen percent of Americans said that internet news websites were responsible for the excessive celebrity coverage. Newspapers and the radio were cited by 8 and 4% of survey participants, respectively, as being responsible for unnecessary celebrity reports. The rest of the survey participants did not know or had no opinion.

The survey carried an error of 3.5 percentage points.

Sources:

Pew Reports:

http://people-press.org/reports/questionnaires/346.pdf

Pew Research Center press release:

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=346