ABSTRACT
What do citizens know about news media? This is an underappreciated question, considering the central role news plays in democratic self-governance and the political self-efficacy of citizens. For something that consumes so much of our attention, we know surprisingly little about it. This chapter explains the influence of news on public perceptions of reality and reviews research that measures various types of news knowledge and motivations as well as the connections between news and media literacy and political engagement. Broadly, this literature reveals a significant lack of knowledge about the news media system and a general lack of engagement in the face of an overwhelming high-choice environment. However, research also has found positive relationships between news literacy and political engagement that illustrates the need for widespread critical news literacy education.
