Most Americans follow local political and government news, but only a quarter are very satisfied with the quality of coverage
The Pew-Knight Initiative supports new research on how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities.
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The Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand how American adults get information about local government and politics, as well as their attitudes toward that coverage. This is the second report in a series focusing on local news.
The survey was conducted among 5,146 U.S. adults from January 22 to January 28, 2024. All survey respondents are members of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel recruited through national random sampling of residential addresses. In this way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of being selected. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, and other categories. Learn more about the ATP methodology.
Refer to the top line for the questions used for this surveyas well as answers, and to methodology for more details.
This is a Pew Research Center report from the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program jointly funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Find related reports online at https://www.pewresearch.org/pew-knight/.
This is the second report in a series on local news. Read our first report, “The Changing Relationship of Americans with Local News.”
Americans want information about local government and politics. Most say they are at least somewhat interested in news about local laws and policies and local elections. And about two-thirds say they often or sometimes get news about local politics — a higher proportion than people who get news about several other local topics, including the economy and sports.
But among Americans who get their news about local politics, only a quarter say they are very satisfied with the quality of the information they receive, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Those who get news about the weather, traffic and several other topics are more likely to be satisfied with the information they receive in those areas.
Americans also say it’s not easy to find the information they need to participate in the local political process. Less than half of U.S. adults (45%) say it’s very or somewhat easy to find the information they need to make voting decisions in their state. local elections. In comparison, 59% say it is easy to find the information they need to presidential elections.
In both cases, a much higher share of Americans say they are at least somewhat interested in election news than those who say it is easy to find the information they need to vote.
There is virtually no difference between Democrats and Republicans (including independents who lean toward each party) in the share of people who say it is easy to find the information they need to vote locally. But younger adults are less likely than those 50 and older to say it is easy to be an informed local voter.
Access more information on how American adults perceive local political news.
We asked these questions to better understand how Americans are getting local political information at a time when Many local media are struggling, Local news consumption habits are becoming more digitalAnd Public attention to local news is decliningThis report, the second in a series focusing on local news, is part of the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program jointly funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Other key findings about Americans’ experience with local political news include:
Americans most often get local political information from friends and family, local media, and social media.
In the United States, adults get their information about local government and politics from a variety of sources. The most common are friends, family, and neighbors (70%) and local media (66%).
Just over half (54%) also say they often or sometimes receive information about local politics through social media.
A smaller share say they at least sometimes get local political information from local government websites (32%), from local nonprofits or advocacy groups (31%), or from local politicians (30%).
There are gaps between young and older adults in some of the sources they turn to for local political information:
- 71% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 often or sometimes receive information about local government and politics through social media, compared to 36% of those 65 and older.
- Conversely, Americans aged 65 and older are more likely than adults under 30 to get their information about local politics from local media (75% vs. 53%) and from local politicians (39% vs. 20%).
Similar proportions of older and younger adults learn about local politics from friends, family and neighbors.
Access more details on Americans’ local political news sources.
Americans are more interested in national political news than local politics
Overall, nearly identical shares of Americans say they follow local news and national news Very close or close. But when it comes to politics in particular, interest in news about national politics is greater than for local politics.
- Americans are more likely to say they are at least somewhat interested in presidential elections (81%) than local elections (70%). The gap is even wider when looking at the share of those interested in local elections (81%). extremely Or very interested in the presidential (54%) and local (34%) elections.
- U.S. adults are also more likely to say they are extremely or very interested in national laws and policies (50%) than local laws and policies (42%).
- There is no significant difference between Republicans and Democrats in the share of those who are at least somewhat interested in news about their local elections (73% and 71%, respectively) or in local laws and policies (83% and 82%).
Americans who are more attached to their local community are more interested in and satisfied with local political news
There is a clear link between Americans’ sense of community connection and their experience with information about local government and politics. Those who feel more connected to their community are more interested in information about local laws and local elections, are more satisfied with the quality of local political information, and are more likely to find the information they need to vote.
- 91% of Americans who feel very connected to their community are at least somewhat interested in news about local laws and policies, compared to 68% of those who are not or not at all interested. The same trend applies to interest in news about local elections.
- A majority of Americans with a strong sense of community belonging (61%) say it is at least somewhat easy to find the information they need to make voting decisions in local elections. Among those with little or no sense of community belonging, only 34% say the same.
- Among U.S. adults who follow local political and government news, four in ten of those with a strong attachment to their community are extremely or very satisfied with the local political information they receive, more than double the share of those who feel little or no attachment to their community (16%).
Community attachment remains an important factor in these opinions, regardless of whether people are registered to vote or follow local political news closely.
