Americans follow the news less closely than they did a few years ago.

That’s according to a research analyst focusing on news and information research at Pew Research Center.

Here are some of the stats published with a recent article written by Naomi Forman-Katz, the Pew analyst:

In 2016, 51% of U.S. adults said they followed the news all or most of the time. That share fell to 38% in 2022.

Likewise, a rising share of Americans said they follow the news only now and then.

While 12% of adults said this in 2016, that figure increased to 19% by 2022. And while 5% of adults said in 2016 that they hardly ever follow the news, 9% said the same last year.

Americans in all age groups have become less likely to say they follow the news all or most of the time since 2016.

For example, the Pew study indicates that 46% of adults ages 30 to 49 said in 2016 they followed the news all or most of the time. But as of 2022, only 27% said this. The decline in Americans’ attention to the news crosses all demographic lines, including education, gender, race, ethnicity and political party affiliation, but it is particularly steep among Republicans polled, who tend to be less trusting of national news organizations.

An earlier study had indicated that over the course of five years, from 2016 to 2021, the percentage of Republicans with at least some trust in national news had been cut in half — dropping from 70% in 2016 to 35% in 2021. At that time, Pew stated that the decline was fueled by the widening partisan gap in trust in the media.

That’s a problem that must be dealt with.

I can venture some assumptions about the causes of all these issues.

Perhaps the decline comes from the fact that people are “burned out” on news overload.

I wonder if the people who were polled about their news consumption habits generally applied that question to national or international news topics — such as the southern U.S. border crossings or the wars in Gaza and Ukraine — or to national politics like the divisiveness in D.C. or the upcoming presidential election.

While all are important topics, they still are enough to burn out anyone (even me)!

Or perhaps news consumers simply are fed up with the 24/7 cable news networks’ spin on absolutely everything. It does get old, after all, having to figure out what news reports are actually accurate, considering so many cable networks offer conflicting angles on stories, depending on whether a news station happens to be right-leaning or left-leaning.

Sadly, I also wonder if fewer people feel no need to read the newspaper or online web sites of reputable media organizations or watch television news (network or cable) because they feel informed enough based on what they happened to have scanned on social media.

Yikes!

Still, no matter what the case, those in the news industry have a problem. Faith in our accuracy and credibility has declined, and news consumers who always saw the importance of being informed, suddenly don’t.

Adding to the problem is the fact that some in the media so often refuse to drop elitist attitudes they may possess.

Balance and accuracy is a big place to start. If a media organization is notified that a story contains an error, then, by God, fix it. Don’t be defensive by denying the existence of the error or minimizing the error’s impact. If it’s wrong, then say it’s wrong.

A fellow journalist once told me this: “Doctors bury their mistakes. Lawyers send their mistakes to jail. Journalists print their mistakes for all the world to see.”

Likewise, we should not be sheepish about printing our corrections in the same way.

And let’s talk about balance.

While we must be accurate and verify all our facts without making leaps of faith, we also should treat our analysis of both right- and left-leaning topics and sources equally.

Overall, journalists must focus more on opening their eyes to what really is happening in the world we cover. And do it with balance and accuracy.

After all, without credibility, we have nothing.