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As Americans navigate the abundance of information about the 2024 U.S. presidential election, many of them are seeing news they think is inaccurate – and having a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction.
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that about three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) say they have seen inaccurate news coverage about the election at least somewhat often, including 37% who have seen this kind of information extremely or very often.
About half of Americans (52%) say they generally find it difficult to determine what is true and what is not when getting news about the election. And 28% separately say that it’s been difficult for them to find reliable information about the presidential election.
Supporters of the two major political parties are having vastly different experiences with election news in these ways.
- Republicans (including independents who lean toward the GOP) are much more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say they have seen inaccurate coverage and that they are having a hard time sorting out the truth.
- And Republicans are less likely than Democrats to say it is easy for them to find reliable information about the election (29% vs. 52%, respectively).
Overall, Americans are much less likely to be wary of the information from their most frequent sources of election news. Much smaller shares say they at least sometimes see inaccurate information from the sources they turn to most often for news and information about the election than say the same about election news in general.
At the same time, people also say inaccurate information is coming from sources other than news outlets: 58% of Americans say they have heard people they know share information about the election that they think is inaccurate at least somewhat often. There is little difference between the parties on this question – Republicans and Democrats say they hear inaccurate information from their personal circles at roughly the same rates.
Jump to more information about Americans’ views on the accuracy of election news.
How Americans’ attention toward election news has changed throughout the campaign
Overall, about seven-in-ten Americans say they are following news about the candidates for the 2024 presidential election very (28%) or fairly (40%) closely. This is up from 58% in April and 65% in July, mirroring a pattern also seen in 2020 in which attention increases closer to Election Day.