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Audiences for Fox News, CNN, MSNBC

ByReview Staff

Pew Research has some illuminating data on the composition of audiences for the major cable news networks. A couple of quick highlights/conclusions can be extracted from the data:

1) Democrats make up a bigger percentage of Fox News’ audience than Republicans do of CNN’s audience. (The article does note that more people identify themselves as Democrats than Republicans).

2) Between 1998 and 2008, large numbers of Republicans migrated to Fox News from CNN and MSNBC. This may have more to do with the growth and increased availability of the Fox News channel , though, and less to do with the political leanings of the network.

3) The share of Democrats who watch CNN/MSNBC gradually increased between 1998 and 2008.

4) 63% of those who cited Fox News as their primary news source identified as Republicans or GOP-leaning. Similarly, 63% of those who cited CNN as their main news source identified as Democrats or Democrat-leaning.

Basically, the composition of the audiences of the major cable news networks seems to reflect the general bias/leaning of that network’s coverage. But more importantly, I hope that these data will put to rest the idea that Fox News’ audience consists of fringe elements of the American right.

Author

  • Cornell students, community members, and alumni contribute to the Cornell Review. Staff consists of student writers collaborating on articles, with occasional guest submissions as well.

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Cornell students, community members, and alumni contribute to the Cornell Review. Staff consists of student writers collaborating on articles, with occasional guest submissions as well.

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