Misperception No. 1
Only 19% of Americans surveyed knew that the number of kids on welfare declined since 1996.
This working paper begins by reviewing where the general public is mistaken about major issues affecting America’s children. It examines one possible source of this misunderstanding — the print media — by analyzing the print content of five major newspapers over a 13-month period.
The American public is largely unaware of the issues affecting kids today, according to this study. One possible reason? The print media isn’t covering these topics frequently — or utilizing statistics when they do.