Exploring Perceptions of Fairness in News Coverage Across 45 Countries

Abstract

In recent years, social movements in many countries have turned public and academic attention toward the fairness of news coverage with respect to gender, age, and political identities – as well as its knock-on effects on media and political attitudes and participation. This study examines how global audiences think about how the news media cover people like them. We use 2021 online survey data in 45 countries (N = 92,372) to investigate public perceptions of fairness in news coverage of people’s own age, gender, and political views. We find that although people typically think that news coverage of people like them is fair rather than unfair, we also find that older people (and in some countries, younger people too), women, and political partisans are less likely to think that they are covered fairly. We do not find evidence that these effects are stronger in countries where these groups are less represented in the journalistic profession, but we do find that middle-aged people in countries with more middle-aged journalists are more likely to think coverage of people their age is fair.