Which sources most informed how Americans decided to vote in the 2024 election? 

Between Aug. 30 and Oct. 8, a team of researchers at four universities surveyed thousands of American adults and asked the following question: When making a decision about voting, including candidates for office and ballot initiatives, what is your most important source of information?

The online survey was conducted as part of the Civic Health and Institutions Project, which provides national and state-level opinion and behavior data on a wide variety of topics. Also known as CHIP50, the project is a collaboration of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University; the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Harvard Medical School; the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University; and the Department of Political Science and Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

Among the key findings of the latest CHIP50 survey, which comprised a nationwide sample of 25,518 responses:

• Across the entire sample, friends/family and news stories were the top two primary sources of election information in 2024, at 29 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
• Democrats and Independents were more likely to rely on news stories as their primary source of election information than Republicans.

Americans who had not attended college were more likely to rely on friends and family for election information than Americans with more formal education, who were more likely to rely on the news media.

• Only 25 percent of respondents reported being “very” or “extremely” satisfied with local political news.
• Local news outlets served as the primary election information source for 8 percent of all respondents, while 17 percent said national news was the primary source.
• Among those participants who selected “news stories” as their most important source of election information, 41 percent of respondents cited national TV news as their top news source, followed by local TV news (21 percent), national news websites (18 percent), local news websites (4 percent), national print news (4 percent), national radio (3 percent), local print news (3 percent), local radio (2 percent) and “other” (4 percent).

The researchers note that while their survey sheds light on where Americans choose to get their information, it does not dig into why.

“In the case of local media, for example, it remains unclear whether its limited use reflects personal preference or is the results of restricted access,” they write. “The decline of local media and the rise of news deserts across the U.S. mean that for many Americans, local news simply may not be available.”

The Journalist’s Resource has republished a downloadable copy of the CHIP50 report with permission. I encourage you to explore the findings …