A poll shows that two-thirds of US adults ignore political news US Election 2024 News

After months of presidential election coverage, a new poll highlights a years-long trend of political fatigue in the United States.

After a year of relentless and intense US dominance Presidential election campaignA new poll shows that Americans are looking for a break from political news.

Poll conducted by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Released on Thursday It found that 65% of US adults said they felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government “due to information overload (and) burnout.”

Broken down by political affiliation, about seven in 10 Democratic voters — 72 percent — said they tune out political news. 59% of Republicans said the same, as did 63% of independents.

“People are mentally exhausted,” Ziad Aoun Allah, 45, who lives in San Diego, California, told the Associated Press. “Everyone knows what’s coming, we’re just taking some time off.”

The poll, conducted in early December, comes weeks later Republican Donald Trump He achieved victory in the presidential elections that took place on November 5 over his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Media coverage focused on Trump and Harris as they spent months on the campaign trail, crisscrossing the country organizing rallies and meeting with voters.

Since Trump’s victory, the US President-elect – W His plans Once he arrives at the White House next month – it will dominate the news cycle.

But as the AP-NORC poll found, U.S. TV news ratings show many Americans aren’t tuning in as 2024 draws to a close.

After Election Night through Dec. 13, MSNBC’s prime-time television news network had an average audience of 620,000 households, down 54 percent from its pre-election audience this year, the Nielsen company said. CNN’s average viewership of 405,000 fell 45 percent during the same period.

However, there was a noticeable difference when looking at the numbers in Fox News Channelthe preferred network of Trump supporters.

There, the post-election average was 2.68 million viewers, an increase of 13 percent, Nielsen said.

Since the election, 72% of people who watch one of these three cable networks in the evening are watching Fox News, compared to 53% before Election Day.

Political fatigue and the need to disconnect from the news is not a new phenomenon in the United States polarization The pace of divisive rhetoric has risen dramatically in recent years.

In 2020, the Pew Research Center found that about two-thirds of Americans reported feeling “burned out” by the amount of news available to them, which is roughly the same percentage of people who said they experienced news fatigue in 2018.

Pew too Reported in September Last year, 65% of people surveyed said they always or often felt overwhelmed when thinking about politics, while 55% said they always or often felt angry.

The same poll found that about eight in 10 Americans responded negatively when asked to describe the political situation in the country, with many choosing the word “divisive” to explain the situation.

Arash Javanbakht, an associate professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University in the US state of Michigan, explained that the “politics of fear” is among the top three reasons that prompt many Americans to withdraw from politics.

“The COVID-19 pandemic, more than a decade of intense political pressure, social media polarization and wars around the world, as well as general disillusionment with American politics and media, have, I believe, led many people to experience burnout and helplessness.” acquired. books In conversation this month.