Rural and urban. Blue and white collar. College and high school educated. There are many so-called “divides” in American politics. In a new survey, Northeastern University researcher John Wihbey adds another: a news divide — where voters for Republican Donald Trump were more likely to get election information from family and friends compared to Democratic and independent voters who generally relied on traditional media.
“Trump voters and persons inclined towards Trump got a lot of their information from friends and family, which speaks to a kind of network tribalism that is apparent in American politics now,” says Wihbey, associate professor of media innovation and technology at Northeastern. “You can see a general reduction in the ability of high-quality news media to reach a lot of the citizenry,” Wihbey continues. “And you can also see a great deal of dissatisfaction on behalf of the citizenry toward both national and local news, so the traditional institutions that have anchored democracy for many generations have kind of withered.”
