How Well Informed Are We?
The Pew Research Center is a valuable resource for anyone interested in what’s going on in America, and what we Americans think. The researchers do constant surveys on all kinds of stuff in the news—like the health care debate or where President Obama stands in the polls, etc.—and sometimes it’s a little frustrating and frightening to find out what “we” think/know.
Sometimes it’s a little confusing to find out what “we” really think about issues, because if you watch the news, you think (for example) that most of us don’t want health care reforms (to use a current example). But a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, another important nonpartisan research outfit, finds that a lot of us do support health care reforms when we find out what actually is proposed, instead of what opponents and the media say about it. After all, who would not want poor people to be able to get doctor care and meds when they’re sick or hurt? Are we an enlightened society or aren’t we?The Kaiser poll, done in January, “finds that Americans are divided over congressional health reform proposals, but also that large shares of people, including skeptics, become more supportive after being told about many of the major provisions in the bills.” Imagine that! When you tell people what the thing is really about, they think about it differently than the way the media tell them to!
Anyway, you are (mostly) journalism students, so you should be more interested in news than the average citizen. You are, at least, engaged humans who care about what’s going on in the world. So I’d like you to go to the Pew Research Center and take its current news quiz. Click here for the quiz. Please do the quiz before you read the results and commentary on this Pew website.
And then please post your results and any comments in the dialog box below. I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.
El Peez
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I took the quiz. I'm not telling you how I did though, until I hear from some of you. After you take the quiz, you not only get your results (out of 12 questions), but there's a bar chart on how other people who took the quiz did, and demographics on how everyone did on each question. Interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteDr. Ted
(Kay Anderson) OK - I'll go. I got six question correct (so 50%) along with 8% of the public, which is above 58% of the public, and below 34%. I guess I'm reading the wrong news stories.
ReplyDeleteI answered 6 questions correctly. I am some what embarassed to admit that I know so little about our countrys current news. However, I am relieved that I seem to be pretty similar to the rest of the public. It is sad though, how little we really know about the happenings in our government and country. I need to start paying better attention to what is going on around me.
ReplyDeleteI got 7 correct answers which is mean (66%). I am so glad with my result because I am not the "News person". However, I would love to improve my news knowledge more and more by paying attention to the news so I can know exactly what's going on around the world.
ReplyDeleteAlong with Kottley, I am also very embarrassed. I received a under 50% which is a huge eye-opener. I am someone who reads the news at least twice a day, and to score this low comes as a big shock. This makes me realize I need to start paying more attention to politics more and not so much on what is going on around the country and world.
ReplyDeleteI only got 4 right... I obviously don't watch or listen to the news as often as I should. But of course I knew the Twitter question. That's pretty lame.
ReplyDeleteBooyah, I got 8 out of 11. The sad story is that I guessed on three of the ones I got right. I'm ashamed that I did not know the national unemployment rate. There is so much hype about jobs right now, I was somehow looking for a higher number than what the survey reports.
ReplyDeleteI answered 8 out of the 11 right. This was a good reminder that I need to pay better attention to the news and what's going on around me.
ReplyDeleteI got 9 out of 11 and missed the most of the ones that everyone missed, like the prime minister of Great Britian.
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