The Pew Reseach Center Study (published in June 2018)
 

The Pew Research Center is an nonpartisan think-tank which often covers troubling social issues at hand by providing in-depth studies and articles about such things.

I came across an interesting Study, today, which was recently published in June of 2018. I thought it was an superbly executed study and found the article very enlightening. It's an great opportunity to examine how internal bias can at times keep people from understanding the vital difference between facts vs opinion. I hope other's enjoy reading this article too.

--K.




Title of Article and Study: Trust, Facts and Democracy: Distinguishing Between Factual and Opinion Statements in the News

Author: Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Michael Barthel, and Nami Sumida.

Overview:

Overview
-Republicans and Democrats are more likely to think news statements are factual when they appeal to their side – even if they are opinions.
-News brand labels in this study had a modest impact on separating factual statements from opinion.
-When Americans call a statement factual they overwhelmingly also think it is accurate; they tend to disagree with factual statements they incorrectly label as opinions.

About the study
1. Overall, Americans identified more statements correctly than incorrectly, but sizable portions got most wrong.
2. The ability to classify statements as factual or opinion varies widely based on political awareness, digital savviness and trust in news media.
3. Republicans and Democrats more likely to classify a news statement as factual if it favors their side – whether it is factual or opinion.
4. Americans overwhelmingly see statements they think are factual as accurate, mostly disagree with factual statements they incorrectly label as opinions.
5. Tying statements to news outlets had limited impact on Americans’ capacity to identify statements as factual or opinion.

Acknowledgments
Methodology
Appendix A: Measuring capacity to classify statements as factual or opinion
Appendix B: Detailed tables

Opening Excerpt:

In today’s fast-paced and complex information environment, news consumers must make rapid-fire judgments about how to internalize news-related statements – statements that often come in snippets and through pathways that provide little context. A new Pew Research Center survey of 5,035 U.S. adults examines a basic step in that process: whether members of the public can recognize news as factual – something that’s capable of being proved or disproved by objective evidence – or as an opinion that reflects the beliefs and values of whoever expressed it.

The findings from the survey, conducted between Feb. 22 and March 8, 2018, reveal that even this basic task presents a challenge. The main portion of the study, which measured the public’s ability to distinguish between five factual statements and five opinion statements, found that a majority of Americans correctly identified at least three of the five statements in each set. But this result is only a little better than random guesses. Far fewer Americans got all five correct, and roughly a quarter got most or all wrong. Even more revealing is that certain Americans do far better at parsing through this content than others. Those with high political awareness, those who are very digitally savvy and those who place high levels of trust in the news media are better able than others to accurately identify news-related statements as factual or opinion.

Additional Info: There is an section of charts and other sets of explanatory notes and an methodology and results section, which accompany the study. The study was conducted during the earlier part of this year (February 2018).

LINK TO ARTICLE:

http://www.journalism.org/2018/06/18...s-in-the-news/

enjoyed Kat, you always have something interesting to give us. thanks so much!...also, who do you like or wish for in 2020?:sunglass:

You're welcome, kittygrrl.


I have not made up my mind, yet. It will take some time, I think, since it's too early to know who will be running on an Democratic ticket for 20/20. Sorry!

--K. :vigil:

I really like Kamela Harris(Cali Senator), she is focused, articulate and comfortable challenging testimony, a colleague's opinion etc...she reminds me of Obama, but more aggressive...she would make an excellent foil to trump...

I was just informed I was off topic as the thread is about midterms:glasses: Apologies!

Obama Endorses 81 Candidates for 2018 Midterms via Twitter
 

California

Gavin Newsom (Gov)
Eleni Kounalakis (Lt. Gov)
Josh Harder (US House - CA 10)
TJ Cox (US House - CA 21)
Katie Hill (US House - CA 25)
Katie Porter (US House - CA 45)
Harley Rouda (US House - CA 48)
Mike Levin (US House - CA 49)
Ammar Campa-Najja (US House - CA 50)
Buffy Wicks (State Assembly - District 15)

Colorado

Jared Polis (Gov)
Diane Primavera (Lt. Gov)
Phil Weiser (Attorney General)
Jena Griswold (Secretary of State)
Tammy Story (State Senate - District 16)
Jesse Danielson (State Senate - District 20)
Brittany Pettersen (State Senate - District 22)
Faith Winter (State Senate - District 24)
Dylan Roberts (State Senate - District 26)
Dafna Michaelson Jennet (State Senate - District 30)
Sharon Bird (State Senate - District 35)
Rochelle Golindo (State Senate - District 50)
Julie McCluskey (State Senate - District 61)

Georgia

Stacey Abrams (Gov)
Sarah Riggs Amico (Lt. Gov)
Matthew Wilson (State Senate - District 80)
Shelley Hutchinson (State House - District 107)

Illinois

J.B. Pritzker (Gov)
Juliana Stratton (Lt. Gov)
Kwame Raoul (Attorney General)
Sean Casten (US House - IL 6)
Brenden Kelley (US House - IL 20)
Lauren Underwood (US House - IL 14)

Iowa

Deidre DeJear (Secretary of State)
Tim Gannon (Secretary of Agriculture)
Kristin Sunde (US House- District 42)
Jennifer Konfrst (State House - District 43)
Eric Gjerde (State House - District 67)
Laura Liegois (State House - District 91)

Maine

Louis Luchini (State Senate - District 7)
Laura Fortman (State Senate - District 13)
Linda Sandborn (State Senate - District 30)

Nevada

Jacky Rosen (US Senate)
Susie Lee (US House - NV 3)
Steven Horsford (US House - NV 4)

New Jersey

Andy Kim (US House - NJ 3)
Tom Malinowski (US House - NJ 7)

New Mexico

Debra Haaland (US House - NM 1)
Damon Ely (State House - District 23)
Natalie Figeuroa (State House - District 30)

New York

Antonio Delgado (US House - NY 19)
Anna Kaplan (State Senate - District 7)

North Carolina

Wiley Nickel (State Senate - District 16)
Ron Wesson (State House -District 1)
Terence Everitt (State House - 35)
Julie Von Haefen (State House - District 36)
Sydney Batch (State House - District 37)
Rachel Hunt (State House - District 103)

Ohio

Richard Cordray (Gov)
Betty Sutton (Lt. Gov)
Steve Dettelbach (Attorney General)
Kathleen Clyde (Secretary of State)
Zach Space (Auditor)
Aftab Pureval (US House - OH 1)
Jill Schiller (US House - OH 2)
Phil Robinson (State House - District 6)
Stephanie Howse (State House - District 11)
Mary Lightbody (State House - District 19)
Beth Liston (State House - District 21)
Allison Russo (State House - District 24)
Erica Crawley (State House - District 26)
Tavia Galonski (State House - District 35)
Casey Weinstein (State House - District 37)
Taylor Sappington (State House - District 94)

Pennsylvania

Madeleine Dean (US House - PA 4)
Susan Wild (US House - PA 7)
Tina Davis (State Senate - District 6)
Liz Hanbidge (State House - District 61)
Carolyn Commita (State House - District 156)

Texas

Adrienne Bell (US House - TX 14)
Colin Allred (US House - TX 32)


LINK to Barack Obama's Twitter Page

PLEASE get out and vote in Arizona......
 

Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat will run against Rep.Martha McSally who won the Republican Senate primary in Arizona on Tuesday to fill Flake's seat.



After watching and listening to her (McSally) these past couple days...

IMHO McSally is one woman we don't need in Washington!

I love Senator Harris, but if anyone thinks a female who's also an African American can be elected in this land of misogyny and racism, I'm sorry to say, but it's doubtful.
I like the chances for Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Joe Biden and some of the other old timers, IF they get adequate funding and a modern team of staffers who know social media and have the energy to make up for their candidate's lack thereof.
Though I agree, we do need some young blood in office, I think it will take an old pro with deep contacts in both Houses to clean up the messes this fucking orange menace has created.
On the bright side, at least the Democrats won't have the GOP's problem of finding a candidate who doesn't have orange Cheeto stains on their mouths or zippers.:fastdraq:

Anybody following the news story about Georgia Secretary of State, Kemp (GOP), in his run for Governor against Stacy Abrams (DEM)?


That horrible person is misusing his power by purging Black voters from the voting rolls.

Here's the article from AlterNet (Today: October 10th, 2018):

VOTE 2018: Republican Official Caught Purging Tens of Thousands of Black Voters from His Own Election for Governor

Voter Registration Deadline for Every State
 

Voter Registration Deadline for Every State

https://goodblacknews.org/2018/10/10...r-every-state/

(The information above has been culled from headcount.org, but some of headcount’s links aren’t working.)

I think even we Democrats can't screw this up if we show up and vote "straight" D.

HRC releases congressional scorecard on the 115th Congress
 

HRC releases congressional scorecard grading members on LGBTQ issues.

A vast majority of GOP Senators and House members earned zero ratings, indicating no support for LGBTQ rights

https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets...ard-Report.pdf

The link address to this PDF could change. If so, just search HRC Congressional Scorecard you should be able to find a link to the PDF.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has been working on creating new law to ensure that corruption is dealt with swiftly, to ensure that corrupt political gains will face strong consequences, to make sure that corruption won't be tolerated in American politics (like observed with the current administration in office).


LINK:

Warren's Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act (Vox news article).

I'm not worried about Russia...........
 

Thwarting our election...what I am worried about are these Americans who insist on trying to make it difficult in such places as Dodge City Kansas and the State of Georgia for people of minorities to cast their vote!

It was reported and I sure hope it's true that Oprah will step in and help Stacey Adams this week-end in Georgia!

Thankfully the UCLA has filed a lawsuit in Dodge City Poll voting debacle and it will be heard and decided on Thursday!

Like I said I'm not worried abut the Russians .........

LOOKING IN FROM THE OUTSIDE:

Just hoping that many of you who have the privilege ( and responsibility ) to vote in these mid-term elections will understand that your vote will affect not only your own districts and your own country but also that you represent so many of us "out here" who depend on a sane, humane, reasonable, inclusive America to help the rest of us to have safe lives out here in the rest of the world.

We need the strength and energy of Americans. Otherwise, we too might lose all we have fought for. Please vote.

Florida has invalidated a ton of mail in ballots for signatures missing or not matching. I heard something like 15,000. I would never mail in my ballot. Ever. It's infuriating. We have this idiotic signature matching law, but why do people do absentee unless truly absent? It's unbelievably stupid. It gives them one more chance to steal your vote. I always vote in person. With early voting, how hard can it be to show up unless you are truly out of the country or recovering from surgery or something? Why give them a chance to invalidate your vote?

Voting complete!

Below is Randy Rainbow's GO VOTE cheer. :koolaid:

Find Your Poling Place
 

Need help with voting? Can’t find where to vote? Get answers here:

https://www.nass.org/can-i-vote

https://www.nass.org/can-i-vote/find-your-polling-place