By Alex Berezow — September 20, 2017
New polling data from Pew shows that most Americans don't consume any science news whatsoever. Given how out of step the American public is with scientists over many key issues -- from the safety of GMOs to vaccines -- this probably doesn't come as much of a surprise.
According to the poll, 17% of Americans are active science news consumers, while 36% come across science news at least a few times per week. (Obviously, that means 64% do not, which is concerning in an age where science and technology affect much of our daily lives.) What does come as a small (and pleasant) surprise is that the fraction of Americans who do pay attention to science news know that the mainstream media is a terrible place to get it.
Only 28% of Americans think that general news sources get their science facts correct most of the time. That's the same as the percentage of Americans who think the government gets science right most of the time. A majority of Americans (54% and 52%) believe that museums and documentaries are accurate, respectively, and another 47% believe that specialty science news outlets do a good job.
Those are perfectly fine numbers, but how seriously should we take this poll?.........To Read More....
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