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Comparing Estimates of News Consumption from Survey and Passively Collected Behavioral Data
Open accessAbstract
Surveys are a vital tool for understanding public opinion and knowledge, but they can also yield biased estimates of behavior. Here we explore a popular and important behavior that is frequently measured in public opinion surveys: news consumption. Previous studies have shown that television news consumption is consistently overreported in surveys relative to passively collected behavioral data. We validate these earlier findings, showing that they continue to hold despite large shifts in news consumption habits over time, while also adding some new nuance regarding question wording. We extend these findings to survey reports of online and social media news consumption, with respect to both levels and trends. Third, we demonstrate the usefulness of passively collected data for measuring a quantity such as “consuming news” for which different researchers might reasonably choose different definitions. Finally, recognizing that passively collected data suffers from its own limitations, we outline a framework for using a mix of passively collected behavioral and survey-generated attitudinal data to accurately estimate consumption of news and related effects on public opinion and knowledge, conditional on media consumption.
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“Without access to behavioural measures of exposure, studies must instead rely on survey self-reports that are prone to measurement error24,25.”
From Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing (2023) · cites this paper as [25]
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References 30 · Cited by 39
Research works printed but not linked: 19
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- Krumpal, 2013, “Determinants of Social Desirability Bias in Sensitive Surveys: A Literature Review, Quality & Quantity, 47, 2025, 10.1007/s11135-011-9640-9 · DOI · Paper page
- LaCour, 2014, “Improving Media Measurement: Evidence from the Field, Political Communication, 31, 408, 10.1080/10584609.2014.921258 · DOI
- Levendusky, 2013, “Why Do Partisan Media Polarize Viewers?, American Journal of Political Science, 57, 611, 10.1111/ajps.12008 · DOI · Paper page
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- ———, 2013, “The Challenge of Measuring Media Exposure: Reply to Dilliplane, Goldman, and Mutz, Political Communication, 30, 620, 10.1080/10584609.2013.819539 · DOI
- Schober, 2016, “Social Media Analyses for Social Measurement, Public Opinion Quarterly, 80, 180, 10.1093/poq/nfv048 · DOI
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- Shirani-Mehr, 2018, Disentangling Bias and Variance in Election Polls, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 113, 607, 10.1080/01621459.2018.1448823 · DOI
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Metadata
- Authors
- Konitzer, T., Allen, J., Eckman, S., Howland, B., Mobius, M., Rothschild, D., & Watts, D. J.
- Corresponding author
- Rothschild, David
- Venue
- Public Opinion Quarterly
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2021-08-21
- Volume
- 85
- Issue
- S1
- Pages
- 347-370
- ISSN
- 0033-362X (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5331
- OpenAlex
- W3194628895
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 10.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
- Locations
- Public Opinion Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Social Sciences › Communication › News Media Framing and Political Communication
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Keywords
- news consumption, survey bias, passive data collection, behavioral data, television news, online news, social media news, overreporting, question wording, media use, public opinion, knowledge assessment
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