16.1 FRQ

Within a news story, the statements from the sources cited—and what reporters choose to quote from them—as well as the reporter’s own language formulate the overall assessment of the Trump administration. During the time period studied, stories from outlets with a right-leaning audience were at least five times more likely to carry an overall positive evaluation of Trump’s words or actions . . . than stories from outlets with a left-of-center or more mixed audience (31% vs. 5% and 6%, respectively). They were also at least three times less likely to carry negative assessments (14% vs. 56% and 47%, respectively). Still, most stories from outlets with a right-leaning audience (55%) carried neither a positive nor negative assessment of the president.


—Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Galen Stocking, Katerina Eva Matsa, and Elizabeth Grieco, “Covering President Trump in a Polarized Media Environment,” Pew Research Center, October 2, 2017

Describe the study referred to in the passage.

Describe a finding based on the research described in part A.

Explain how ideological news media impact political polarization.