A look at the Americans who believe there is some truth to the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was planned
Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Journalism
-
-
Key facts about digital-native news outlets amid staff cuts, revenue losses
Traffic to digital-native news sites has plateaued in recent years. After rising from 2014 to 2016, it remained steady through 2019.
-
Younger adults differ from older ones in perceptions of news about COVID-19, George Floyd protests
Those ages 18 to 29 differ from older Americans in their news consumption habits and in their responses to major news events and coverage.
-
Local news is playing an important role for Americans during COVID-19 outbreak
Some 61% of U.S. adults say they follow COVID-19 news at both the national and local level equally, and 23% say they pay more attention to local news.
-
Three Months In, Many Americans See Exaggeration, Conspiracy Theories and Partisanship in COVID-19 News
After three months of news and information, 64% of U.S. adults say the CDC mostly gets the facts about the outbreak right; 30% say the same about President Trump and his administration.
-
Black, Hispanic and white adults feel the news media misunderstand them, but for very different reasons
59% of Americans think news organizations do not understand people like them, while a minority – 37% – say they do feel understood.
-
As COVID-19 Emerged in U.S., Facebook Posts About It Appeared in a Wide Range of Public Pages, Groups
In March 2020, about three-quarters (74%) of public Facebook posts about COVID-19 linked to news organizations, while just 1% linked to health and science sites.
-
Majorities of Americans Say News Coverage of George Floyd Protests Has Been Good, Trump’s Public Message Wrong
Among black Americans, 72% say coverage has been good or excellent and 85% say Trump’s message has been completely or mostly wrong.
-
Black U.S. adults follow many COVID-19 news topics more closely, discuss the outbreak more frequently
Black adults were much more likely than whites and somewhat more likely than Hispanic adults to frequently discuss the pandemic with others.
-
Around three-in-ten Americans are very confident they could fact-check news about COVID-19
Americans’ confidence in checking COVID-19 information aligns closely with their confidence in checking the accuracy of news stories broadly.
