More than half (18) of the 30 most polarizing brands polled by Morning Consult are media companies, meaning Democrats and Republicans are particularly divided over their perception of media brands.
This is not an entirely new concept. A Gallup and Knight Foundation’s 2017 Survey on Trust, Media and Democracy out in June showed similar results.
- It too found that conservatives are less likely to have high favorability of news outlets than Democrats, speaking to the right's institutional bias against media and Hollywood.
- Gallup has found that Democrats in general tend to have a much more trusting view of the news media than Republicans, with a 58 percentage point difference between the two parties in their "trust in mass media" — the widest margin that has been polled by Gallup since 1997.
Why it matters: There is very little commonality between consumers from different ideological beliefs over what type of news, information and even entertainment they like to consume in comparison to the types of places they like to buy food or shop.
- The only media outlets preferred by Republicans over Democrats are Fox, Fox Business and Breitbart.
- Most entertainment outlets listed, like Comedy Central, HBO and MTV, are much more widely favored by Democrats.
Go deeper: Deep dive on America's polarized politics