You Are What You Read
Understanding How Americans Find Out What’s Going On
Glasp’s Note: At Glasp, we value the close personal relationships we’ve built with like-minded innovators, so we’re excited to welcome
for this guest post. As the founder of Team Rankings and Change Research, and a former early team member at PayPal and LinkedIn, Mike brings deep expertise in data science, startup growth, and ethical innovation. You might remember him from his Glasp Talk appearance, where he shared insights on using data to solve complex problems and drive meaningful impact. We’re honored to continue learning from Mike and share his reflections with our community.Since I first came across Glasp in 2022, I’ve been struck by its approach toward learning and improving. Glasp is focused on helping its users grow and guiding them towards the long term. Glasp users are truth seekers who are constantly looking for good sources of information.
Are most people like that, though? Are they more like fast food addicts or more like health food nuts?
As the co-founder and CEO of Change Research and Embold Research, I get to dig into a great deal of public opinion research. Over the past seven years, we have asked millions of Americans thousands of questions about what they want, need, and believe. In late January, Embold Research conducted a poll of 1,759 Americans, asking how people get information, how they consume media, what they want from it, and who they believe and don’t believe. Here are a few of the things we learned:
There is a Massive Focus on the Here and Now
To get a better understanding of what people are paying attention to, Embold asked, “What's a recent news story that you paid attention to? It can be anything from the last few months,” and received text responses from 1,375 individuals. In this poll, which was conducted just after Trump took office, 19% mentioned Trump’s first days in office, 17% mentioned the 2024 election, and 9% mentioned the Los Angeles fires. Other relatively common topics included pardons by both outgoing President Biden and incoming President Trump, the conflict in Israel and Gaza, the weather (including a recent snowstorm across the South), immigration, and a controversial hand gesture made by Elon Musk.
By contrast, out of 1,375 individual responses, not a single person mentioned artificial intelligence. Exactly one person mentioned China as part of a longer answer. In Silicon Valley – and perhaps on Glasp – those are central concerns – but findings from a representative survey of Americans are very different.
TV and Social Media Are Driving the Top Stories
When asked how people first learned about the story they mentioned, 31% cited TV news and 27% cited social media. Word of mouth, radio, newspaper, and podcasts were each cited by between 5% and 8% of respondents.
Among those who selected “Something not listed,” many noted that the story they mentioned (the election or inauguration) was something recurring. The most common substantive response was YouTube.
The Joe Rogan Show was by far the most popular podcast source cited, more than three times as frequently cited as the next most popular podcasts (Dan Bongino, Shawn Ryan, Tucker Carlson, and Pod Save America).
The Most Prominent News Sources Aren’t Seen as Particularly Trustworthy
People think the news media is sensational (but their sources are okay).
86% of Americans indicated that the news media values sensationalism more than reporting the news honestly. Just 8% indicated that reporting the news honestly is more important to the media.
However, respondents are split when asked about the news sources they read 43% indicated that their sources most value reporting the news honestly, and the same number indicated that sensationalism is valued most.
This aligns with Fenno’s Paradox: people strongly dislike Congress but like (or at least tolerate) their own Congressional Representative.
We asked about whether several media sources were respectful towards “people like you” - all seven media organizations fell short of being seen as “respectful” by 50% of respondents:
Four organizations – NPR, MSNBC, CNN, and The New York Times – were viewed as respectful by most Democrats but not by most Republicans. And two – Joe Rogan and FOX News – were viewed as respectful by most Republicans but not by most Democrats. None of the organizations were viewed as respectful by most Independents.
The Wall Street Journal was the one news organization tested that was not highly skewed in terms of partisan response, but neither Democrats nor Republicans had especially favorable views of the WSJ’s level of respect.
Similarly, all organizations tested were seen by more people as “biased” than as “unbiased.”
On this measure, National Public Radio fared slightly better than other news organizations, with 43% marking NPR as biased and 35% marking it as unbiased.
Of note for Substack readers: Most people don’t have a substantive opinion of Substack. 15% said they trust Substack as a source, 28% said they don’t trust it, and 57% didn’t have an opinion. By contrast, far more people have an opinion on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter) – and that opinion is generally not good. 22% trust Instagram and 62% don’t trust it; 19% trust TikTok and 65% don’t trust it; and 24% trust X(Twitter), and 59% don’t trust it.
What people want and don’t want
21% of people say they avoid the news most of the time. 41% say they sometimes try to avoid the news.
Democrats in particular say they’ve been consuming less news since the 2024 election: 42% of Democrats say they’ve been consuming less news, compared to just 11% of Republicans.
Here’s what people say they want from the news:
(Question text: “Which of these topics do you regularly seek out information about? Check all that apply.”)
It’s striking that people say they want relatively non-political, non-inflammatory content. And yet their revealed preferences – what they actually click on – tends to be something different.
My pie-in-the-sky hope would be for each of us as individuals to be better versions of ourselves – helped by news organizations that put out good content. We’d all be a little bit better if we consumed content that makes us more informed for both the short term and the long term, that made us a little more thoughtful and less angry.
Mike Greenfield writes the Numerate Choir Substack and is the founder of Change Research, Embold Research, and Team Rankings.
📣 Community Updates by Glasp
🟥 Glasp Talk with Mike Greenfield:
, the founder of Team Rankings, Change Research, a successful angel investor, and a former early employee at PayPal and LinkedIn.
Glasp Talk features intimate interviews with luminaries, revealing their emotions, experiences, and stories. The guest,🟦 Learning Memories on AI Clone:
We just made your AI Clone a lot smarter 🚀 Glasp now generates Learning Memories based on your highlights and notes. It’s like giving your AI a brain that grows with you. Check the tutorial below to see how it works 👀
Would you like to take Glasp on the go?
With the Glasp mobile app, you can highlight and organize your favorite content anytime, anywhere. Stay productive on the move and never miss an insightful quote.
Partner With Glasp
We currently offer newsletter sponsorships. If you have a product, event, or service you’d like to share with our community of learning enthusiasts, sponsor an edition of our newsletter to reach engaged readers.
Share Glasp Newsletter
 | A guest post by
|
It is amazing to see Mike's post on Glasp's Newsletter!
Loved this deep dive into how we consume information. A great reminder to be more intentional with our media diet—thanks for sharing these insights and aligning them with Glasp’s mission for thoughtful learning!
Thank you so much, Mike, for sharing these insights and for writing this piece! 🙌 It’s eye-opening to see how differently people engage with information outside the tech and startup world. Your point about the disconnect between what people say they want (non-inflammatory, thoughtful content) and what they actually consume really resonates. It’s a powerful reminder of why we built Glasp—to help people slow down, reflect, and intentionally grow. Loved the data-driven perspective and the call to become better versions of ourselves through mindful reading. Grateful to keep learning from you!