This is the third of four detailed sections in a report on Americans’ views about the role of journalists in the digital age. The report also includes an overview of the key findings.
In both the survey and the focus groups that were part of this study, we asked several questions to better understand how Americans think about journalists broadly, as well as the role they play – or should play – in society.
A majority of Americans (59%) say journalists are extremely or very important to the well-being of society. An additional 31% say journalists are somewhat important, while just 9% say they are not too or not at all important.
These findings mirror those from our focus groups, where participants largely agreed that journalists play, or at least should play, a critical role in informing society about what’s happening in the world. One woman in her 50s said, “I think [journalists’ role is] to make sure that we are informed … to open the door for more questions, more answers, and a deeper understanding of what is happening, whatever it is, whether it’s medical or political or whatever’s happening.”
A woman in her 20s said the role journalists should play in society is of a “watchdog and informer, to let the public know when something’s wrong, to raise the alarm, raise the alert … even things that aren’t an alert, but just things that we need to know to function.”
Some groups of Americans are more likely to say journalists are highly important to the well-being of society:
- Democrats and independents who lean Democratic are far more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to say that journalists are extremely or very important to the well-being of society (73% vs. 45%).
- Americans who consume news more often also see journalists as more important: 63% of those who say they follow the news at least some of the time say journalists are highly important to society, while 43% of those who follow the news less often say the same.
- About two-thirds of college graduates (68%) say journalists are extremely or very important to society’s well-being, versus 58% of Americans with some college education and 51% of those with a high school diploma or less education.
Many Americans see journalists as losing influence
At the same time, about half of Americans say journalists are losing influence in society (49%). This is much higher than the share who say journalists are gaining influence (15%). Roughly a third (36%) say they are neither gaining nor losing influence.
Democrats and Republicans are both much more likely to say that journalists are losing – rather than gaining – influence in society.
However, perceptions vary among Americans with different levels of formal education. A majority of those with at least a college degree (62%) say journalists are losing influence. About half of those with some college education (48%) and roughly a third of those with a high school diploma or less (36%) say the same.
Many of our focus group participants agreed that the rise of alternative news sources has, to some extent, affected the influence of journalists in society. Because people have access to so many sources in the digital age, one woman in her 20s said, “I feel like anyone can do it, in a way. There’s a lot of people out there just starting their own channels taking a little bit of the importance of somebody maybe who went to school to do that. … It can make it feel like a journalist isn’t as important. Although, they are the ones that are really skilled in that job.”
Some participants also noted that this digital shift has lowered barriers to entry for news providers, with consequences for both journalists and their audiences. As one man in his 60s explained: “That’s made the journalism job harder in a good way, in that the truth will hopefully get to it quicker, if you will. If they don’t say something that’s accurate, there’s a lot more folks that are fact-checking and checking things out. And I appreciate that it has made journalism harder, but navigating it for us also makes [our job] harder because who are you listening to becomes more of an issue. There are so many sources out there.”
Public confidence in journalists
While most Americans see journalists as at least somewhat important to society, our recent surveys have not found widespread confidence in journalists to act in the best interests of the public across several years. In our past surveys, journalists have been less trusted than several other institutions and professions, such as the military, scientists and police officers.
In the new survey, fewer than half of U.S. adults (45%) say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in journalists to act in the best interests of the public. Four-in-ten U.S. adults have not too much confidence in journalists, and 14% have no confidence at all.
Democrats remain far more likely than Republicans to express confidence in journalists. However, party differences have decreased somewhat since 2020.
The share of Democrats who say they have at least a fair amount of confidence in journalists to act in the best interests of the public has fallen over the past five years, from 70% in April 2020 to 62% in April 2025. Meanwhile, the share of Republicans who say this has increased slightly during the same period, from 23% to 27%.
When explaining why they do not have a lot of confidence in journalists to act in the best interests of the public, many focus group participants discussed corporate or political influence. One woman in her 50s mentioned journalists being influenced by “the money they’re going to make by what they say or the punishment they’re going to receive for what they say by the government or consumers or whatever.”
This aligns with prior Pew Research Center surveys finding that large majorities of Americans believe U.S. news organizations are at least somewhat influenced by financial or political interests.
A woman in her 40s described what she felt was a “cultural shift” of journalists increasingly “going after ratings … they want to not only report the news but be entertainment. … I know that they’re reporting the stories in a sensational way that’s going to get people to watch and kind of going for that entertainment value.”
How do Americans describe journalists?
The new survey asked Americans whether several characteristics describe most journalists well or not. Majorities of U.S. adults characterize journalists positively, saying that most journalists are intelligent (63%) and well-intentioned (58%). But 58% also say most journalists are biased. Prior Pew Research Center work has also found political bias in news to be a recurring concern among many participants in our qualitative research.
Some focus group participants expressed a lack of confidence in journalists today providing “unbiased” or “factual” information: “We just see them as manipulators of facts trying to bring us to a particular way of thinking or opinion,” one man in his 30s said.
Nearly half of Americans (47%) say that most journalists are relatable. And smaller shares say most journalists are elitist (39%) and dishonest (34%).
Differences by party
Again, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to associate positive characteristics with most journalists. About three-quarters of Democrats (77%) say that most journalists are intelligent, while half of Republicans say the same. Similar patterns exist when it comes to whether most journalists are well-intentioned or relatable.
Republicans, meanwhile, are far more likely than Democrats to say that negative characteristics describe most journalists well.
For instance, 74% of Republicans and 45% of Democrats say that most journalists are biased. And while 51% of Republicans say most journalists are dishonest, 19% of Democrats say the same.
