The Media Insight Project

The Media Insight Project is a collaboration of the American Press Institute (API) and The AP‑NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, with the objective of conducting high‑quality, innovative research meant to inform the news industry and the public about various important issues facing journalism and the news business.

The Media Insight Project brings together the expertise of both organizations and their respective partners, and involves collaborations among key staff at API, NORC at the University of Chicago, and The Associated Press.

Its studies are directed and funded primarily by API and are designed and conducted in partnership between the organizations.

The individual authors, researchers and contributors for each study are cited in the studies’ methodology sections.

About The American Press Institute
The American Press Institute (API) advances an innovative and sustainable local news industry by helping publishers understand and engage audiences, grow revenue, improve public‑service journalism, and succeed at organizational change. API is a national 501©3 nonprofit educational organization affiliated with the News Media Alliance. It works with and draws on the best ideas from technology, business, and publishing. Read more here.

About The Associated Press‑NORC Center For Public Affairs Research
The AP‑NORC Center for Public Affairs Research taps into the power of social science research and the highest‑quality journalism to bring key information to people across the nation and throughout the world.

The Associated Press (AP) is the world’s essential news organization, bringing fast, unbiased news to all media platforms and formats.

NORC at the University of Chicago is one of the oldest and most respected, independent research institutions in the world.

The two organizations have established The AP‑NORC Center for Public Affairs Research to conduct, analyze, and distribute social science research in the public interest on newsworthy topics, and to use the power of journalism to tell the stories that research reveals.

The founding principles of The AP‑NORC Center include a mandate to preserve carefully and protect the scientific integrity and objectivity of NORC and the journalistic independence of AP. All work conducted by the Center conforms to the highest levels of scientific integrity to prevent any real or perceived bias in the research. All of the work of the Center is subject to review by its advisory committee to help ensure it meets these standards. The Center will publicize the results of all studies and make all datasets and study documentation available to scholars and the public.

By The Media Insight Project

Funding news: How Gen Z and Millennials pay for or donate to news

As the economics of journalism continue to evolve, a defining question about the future is whether the news media can create content that consumers are willing to pay for or donate to directly. Central to answering that question is understanding the behavior of what many publishers call the next generation of news audiences, those Americans […]
By The Media Insight Project

Knowing the news: How Gen Z and Millennials get information on essential topics

Millennials and members of Generation Z will soon become the industry’s dominant generations of news consumers and subscribers. What news topics do they follow most often, and how do they get that coverage? 
By The Media Insight Project

Study methodology

This survey was conducted by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the American Press Institute (API) and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey was funded by API. Staff from API, NORC at the University of Chicago, and AP collaborated on all aspects of the study. Data were collected using both […]
By The Media Insight Project

Trust and expectations

Gen Z and Millennials hold traditional expectations of the press and have some positive views of the media Concerns about misinformation and the role of the press in spreading it may contribute to a negative perception of the media as a whole among Gen Z and Millennials. However, the survey also finds Gen Z and […]
By The Media Insight Project

The news consumption habits of 16- to 40-year-olds

Gen Z and Millennials use a variety of media to get news Even with signs of fatigue and worry about being online, Americans ages 16 to 40 are avid news consumers, getting news from many different sources. The vast majority of Gen Z and Millennials get news daily (79%). Fully 96% report doing so at […]
By The Media Insight Project

Fatigue, traditionalism, and engagement: the news habits and attitudes of the Gen Z and Millennial generations

A new in-depth survey of 16- to 40-year-olds shows that members of the Gen Z and Millennial generations are active consumers of news and information, with nearly a third of them willing to pay for it. But their relationship with the news is complex — their trust in the press is low, many are experiencing […]
By The Media Insight Project

News and digital fatigue

Gen Z and Millennials feel digital fatigue and are concerned about misinformation in the media Much has changed in the public discourse around information and news since 2015. When our first survey was published, Donald J. Trump had not been elected president or popularized the description of traditional media as “fake news.” People had not […]
By The Media Insight Project

Broadening the moral values addressed in a news story can increase trust

Americans who value loyalty and authority most highly tend to be the most skeptical of the news media. In experiments with readers, however, we see promising signs that emphasizing these values in stories when they are relevant could broaden the appeal of those stories and of the media generally, without alienating people who revere other […]
By The Media Insight Project

A new way of looking at trust in media: Do Americans share journalism’s core values?

The deep divides over trust in the news media are usually portrayed as largely ideological. Democrats are seven times more likely than Republicans to say they trust the mainstream media, and independents are four times as likely.1 But the argument over media trust often has the feel of people talking past each other—many journalists denying […]
By The Media Insight Project

Study methodology for ‘Do Americans share journalism’s core values?’

This study was conducted by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the American Press Institute (API) and The Associated Press NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The study was funded by API. Staff from API and The AP-NORC Center collaborated on all aspects of the study. The study featured two surveys. Interviews for the […]