University Study Determines Fox News Has Least-Informed National Audience Based On These Questions

A May 5 study from Fairleigh Dickinson University is making news today after one of its findings seemingly indicated that Fox News has the least-informed national audience, while NPR has the best-informed.

The study even “determined” that many people who watch no news at all are more informed than those who watch Fox News, and, of course, people who watch the Daily Show are more informed than both of the above.

According to the report, a total of 1,185 individuals nationwide were asked what news sources they had utilized that week, and then were quizzed on a variety of domestic and international issues.  The study took place between February 6 and 12, 2012.

The analysis explains:

    The study concludes that media sources have a significant impact on the number of questions that people were able to answer correctly. The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all. On the other hand, if they listened only to NPR, they would be expected to answer 1.51 questions correctly; viewers of Sunday morning talk shows fare similarly well.  And people watching only The Daily Show with Jon Stewart could answer about 1.42 questions correctly.

    Results for questions about international current events were similar… [Emphasis added]

Less reported is the highly suspect methodology, which oversampled Republicans “to get a better estimate of the Republican voting process,” but also greatly increasing the Republican margin of error. –By Erica Ritz/The Blaze/May 23, 2012