Many New Jersey residents feel unprepared by their sources of news to make informed voting choices or to get involved in civic activities, according to a Stockton University Poll.
About one-third of poll respondents (34%) said none of the news sources they consume provide any information about their local area. One-third get their local news from nontraditional sources that may not provide in-depth coverage or even be entirely accurate, with 21% using social media and 14% simply hearing news from their family and friends. This is at a time when many news outlets are struggling with staff reductions, as well as circulation and ad revenue losses. Fewer reporters are covering municipal and county news as a result.
When asked how well their news sources inform them about what’s going on in their local government, 40% gave them a negative rating (1-2 out of 5), 28% gave a neutral rating of 3 and 28% gave them a positive rating (3-4 out of 5). Half (51%) said there is not enough news coverage to help them make informed decisions in state and local elections. One in three said the same about national elections.
The poll, which was conducted from September 20 to 29 but the results of which were not released until this week, also indicates that many residents consume little news of any kind; almost half (48%) said they read or watch the news for less than two hours a week. The poll was conducted by the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.
“It’s a vicious circle in which readership and viewership decline, resources are cut and there is less local news content available,” said John Froonjian, director of the Hughes Center. “As local coverage becomes scarce, fewer people consume news.”
The poll suggests that those with local news sources vote in local elections at higher rates than those who do not have local news available to them (44% compared to 34%). In addition, more residents with local news coverage said they felt informed enough to vote in these races (47%) compared to those without such coverage (27%).
Most said they have not volunteered locally (63%), have not attended or watched a meeting for a local board, council or organization (65%), and have not worked with fellow residents to solve a problem in their community (69%) in the past year.
The people who said their news sources do provide local coverage had consistently higher rates of civic engagement compared to those who do not have local news sources, said research associate Alyssa Maurice.
“These results make it clear that local news is not only important to having an informed public. It’s vital to the democratic process,” Froonjian said.
The full poll results are available at https://stockton.edu/hughes-center/polling/polling-results-2022.html