Many NJ Voters Worry About This Crucial Issue, New Poll Finds

Where are New Jersey voters getting their news from – and how much do they trust their sources? That was the focus of a new Rutgers-Eagleton poll released last week, which found that “misinformation” is a big concern in the Garden State.

According to Rutgers-Eagleton, 60 percent of registered voters who replied to the poll said the spread of false or misleading information among New Jerseyans is a “very big problem.”

Only about four percent thought the issue is “not a problem,” with other respondents falling somewhere in between.

“Across all demographic groups and, specifically, across the political aisle, New Jersey voters raise concerns about the spread of misinformation throughout the state,” said Ashley Koning, an assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

“Three quarters or more across the board label it a ‘big problem’ on some level,” Koning pointed out.

“In an era of divisive politics, strong bipartisan agreement that misinformation is an issue is noteworthy,” Koning added.

WHERE ARE NJ RESIDENTS GETTING THEIR NEWS?

New Jersey voters are most likely to say they get news and information about their local community from search engines such as Google (77%), followed by friends or family (75%), and national news outlets (71%), pollsters reported.

About 65 percent said they get news from a local newspaper, whether online or in print.

Other findings from the Rutgers-Eagleton poll included:

• Nearly 6 in 10 get local news from a local television news station (59%) and about half get news from a local online-only news outlet (52%) or a local radio station or podcast (48%)
• Slightly more than 4 in 10 get news from public television such as PBS (42%), community newsletters (42%), community organizations (40%), Facebook (38%), government news websites (38%) and public radio (37%), while roughly 3 in 10 say they reference Instagram (31%) and YouTube (31%). Other voters receive local news from Nextdoor or a similar neighborhood app (23%), X (21%), their religious community (19%) or TikTok (17%).
• Voters rely most on local television news for information about their local community (14%), followed closely by national news outlets (12%) and a local newspaper (11%)

WHO DO YOU TRUST?

Voters also were asked about their level of trust in the sources they specifically use to get accurate information about local issues in New Jersey.

Here’s what the poll found:

• Among those who go to a religious community for information, 90% place at least a “fair amount” of trust in it
• Among those who reference each for information, 85% have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in public radio. Eighty-two percent trust public television, 81% trust community organizations and 80% each trust local radio or local online-only news outlets.
• 77% of voters who get information from friends or family trust the information. Seventy-five percent each say the same about local newspapers and community newsletters, 74% say this about local television and 71% say it about search engines such as Google.
• More than two-thirds who access government news websites trust them for accurate information about issues in New Jersey (67%). Sixty-two percent of those who look to national news outlets and 61% of X users trust them to provide accurate information.
• Among those who access YouTube or TikTok for information, 59% each trust the platforms to supply accurate information. Fifty-two percent of users of neighborhood apps like Nextdoor and 51% of Instagram users trust the apps for accurate information.
• Facebook garners the least trust among those who reference it as a source of information: 42% say they trust it a “great deal” or “fair amount.”

The poll was commissioned by the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium and conducted by the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling. Results are from a statewide poll of 859 registered voters in New Jersey from May 15 to May 19. The full registered voter sample has a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percentage points.

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