Reply #55: I Conducted a Test In a College Sociology Class

[GiovanniC]

It was supposed to compare news viewing habits, gender, and general knowledge of current events for college-aged students (19 to 25, roughly). It found that most had no clue what was going on in the world around them. The questions were very simple fill-in-the-blank questions ripped directly out of top news stories from television, cable news, major newspapers (Wash. Post, USA Today, LA & NY Times), radio (NPR), and the Internet (google, yahoo!).

Average score among males was 7.45 out of 25, and 5.67 out of 25 for females. Questions (which were topical at the time) ranged from winners of Democratic primaries, the Martha Stewart trial, the unrest in Haiti, the winner of the Superbowl, gay marriage in Massachussetts and San Francisco, the sniper in Ohio, the Mars rovers and more.

82% of all males and 75% of all females could not name ONE of our US Senators. More than half knew the stars of "The Simple Life" and could name the first and last name of each character on Friends and identify the actor who played them.

People who listened to NPR scored nearly twice as well as those who got their news from all other sources. Newspaper readers came in second. Cable news (surprise, surprise) came in dead last, nearly tied with those who didn't pay attention to ANY news sources.