Assessing Patterns of Changing Media Diets in the US
CECE conducted a survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,500 adults in the US through YouGov during the two weeks leading up to the 2025 election. The survey included a question about the public’s media diet, which was modeled on a question fielded by the Pew Research Center in March 2025. The tool below shows the responses in aggregate and separated out by certain demographic categories.
The most popular news source was Fox News, with 35% of all US adults reporting that they get their news there. Among Republicans, this number increases to 56% but decreases to 20% among Democrats. CNN is the next most popular, with 32% of all respondents stating that they get their news from the outlet. Among Democrats, this number jumps to 47%, but decreases to 19% among Republicans. ABC, NBC, and CBS all rated similarly (28%, 27%, and 26%, respectively) among all US adults. The least mentioned were the Spanish-language sources Univision, and Telemundo at 3% and 2%.
In the visualization below, our survey responses are compared the the data collected by the Pew Research Center in March 2025. Overall, ABC and NBC were tied with the largest decreases in usage (-8%). ABC experienced a decrease of 7% among Democrats and 6% among Republicans. NBC, in contrast, experienced a decrease of 11% among Democrats and 5% among Republicans. HuffPost and The Hill received the largest increases in usage (+2%), with both seeing a larger increase in Democrats. A few sources saw shifts along party lines. The Joe Rogan Experience, for example, experienced an overall decrease of 7%. Among Republicans, the decrease jumped to 13%, but he experienced an increase of 1% among Democrats.
