A recent analysis by the Pew Research Center, conducted as part of the Pew-Knight Initiative, suggests that the news sources Americans utilize are closely linked to how they engage in public life. The study indicates that audiences for major U.S. news outlets, such as CNN, Fox News, and The New York Times, vary significantly in terms of education levels and partisanship, which in turn corresponds to different patterns of civic involvement Pew Research Center.
To analyze these relationships, researchers categorized the U.S. population into four specific 'engagement groups' based on 19 different measures of participation across political activity, religious attendance, news consumption, and community involvement. These groups are defined as follows: 'Mobilizers,' who are the smallest and most active across all categories; 'Connectors,' who are highly engaged in civic and community activities but less so in politics; 'Spectators,' who follow the news closely but rarely participate directly; and 'Outsiders,' who report the lowest levels of involvement in most tracked activities Pew Research Center.
The findings show that 'Mobilizers'—who make up only 9% of the overall U.S. adult population—are disproportionately represented in the audiences of news outlets that focus heavily on politics. For instance, 19% of regular Axios readers are Mobilizers, while 18% of those who follow The Atlantic, and 16% of audiences for The Hill, Politico, NPR, and the Tucker Carlson Network, fall into this category Pew Research Center.
In contrast, TV news audiences tend to mirror the general U.S. population more closely, though some variations exist. Approximately 31% of U.S. adults are categorized as 'Outsiders.' This share is reflected almost exactly in the audiences of ABC News, NBC News, and Fox News. However, Spanish-language stations Telemundo and Univision have higher proportions of Outsiders at 38% each, while PBS, Newsmax, and BBC News attract fewer, with only 22% of their audiences falling into the Outsider group Pew Research Center.
The 'Connectors' group, comprising 28% of the general population, is overrepresented across most news sources. High concentrations of Connectors are found among readers of The Atlantic (47%), The Hill (45%), and audiences of Breitbart, HuffPost, and Politico, where they each represent 44% of the viewership Pew Research Center.
Meanwhile, 'Spectators' are generally underrepresented in many news audiences, with a few notable exceptions. Thirty-seven percent of the audience for The Joe Rogan Experience are Spectators, compared to 31% of the general population. Similarly, Spectators make up 36% of Telemundo's audience and 40% of Univision's. The report notes that Hispanic Americans are significantly more likely to be Spectators (44%) than non-Hispanic White (26%) or Black Americans (35%) Pew Research Center.
The research relied on two primary surveys of members of the American Trends Panel (ATP). The first survey, conducted between March 10 and 16, 2025, polled 9,482 U.S. adults regarding their usage of 30 prominent news sources. The second survey, conducted from September 8 to 14, 2025, included 5,195 adults to determine their engagement classifications. A third reference survey of 5,393 adults, fielded from July 9 to December 5, 2025, helped establish the baseline shares for each engagement group in the broader U.S. population Pew Research Center.
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