Pew: Where Americans Get News Relates to How They Engage in Public Life, and 'Mobilizers' Are Just 9% of Adults
Where Americans get their news is closely related to how they engage in public life, according to a Pew Research Center Short Read published November 13. Using 19 questions, the study sorts adults into four groups by engagement: Mobilizers, 9% of adults and the most active across politics, civics, news and religion; Connectors, 28%; Spectators, 31%; and Outsiders, 31%.
The groups' news diets differ sharply. Mobilizers make up 19% of Axios's regular readers, 18% of The Atlantic's audience and 16% each of the audiences of The Hill and Politico, while the audiences of the major TV networks closely resemble the general public. Spectators are not tuned out: 84% of them follow national news at least somewhat closely, but they participate less. Age gaps are wide, with nearly half of adults under 30 (46%) classified as Spectators, versus 19% of those 65 and older.
The analysis draws on several Pew surveys, including a news-source survey of 9,482 adults conducted March 10 to 16, 2025, and an engagement-classification survey of 5,393 adults fielded from July 9 to December 5, 2025, and is part of the Pew-Knight Initiative. (Source: Pew Research Center)
Source: Pew Research Center
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片来源：Wikimedia Commons「SET News camera 20130720a.jpg」（Alex S.H. Lin 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0），图中为电视新闻采访拍摄现场 Image: Wikimedia Commons "SET News camera 20130720a.jpg" (by Alex S.H. Lin, CC BY-SA 2.0), A television news camera crew at work
