Daily Digit: Voters are getting wise to ‘fake news’ but still can’t tell it apart from the real thing

Daily Digit is the story behind the numbers that make our world work. With midterm elections getting into high gear, we’re looking at the growing mistrust between voters and what they read online. A recent survey has revealed that Americans estimate that 65 percent of news coverage they see on social media contains misinformation — or as President Trump might call it, “fake news.” A majority of both Democratic and Republican voters agree that the spread of inaccurate information is a major problem for democracy, although Republicans are more than twice as likely to perceive political bias from traditional news sources, at 67 percent compared with Democrats at 26 percent. However, even when they are aware of bias, only 27 percent of Americans say they are confident in their ability to distinguish between facts and opinion in news coverage. So before you head to the polls, be sure to pick your sources carefully.