"There has long been profound social inequality in how well news has served different parts of the public, and many different kinds of groups who have seen little reason to engage with conventional news media who, in turn, did not try particularly hard to engage with them. One such form of inequality is between those with limited formal education and those with higher levels of formal education - a useful, if imperfect, proxy for a class divide."
"In 2016, according to data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, those with limited formal education were only slightly less likely to go directly to news websites or apps for news than the general public, and expressed only slightly lower interest in news. (Those with high education were slightly more likely to go direct and slightly more likely to say they were interested in news.)"
"In 2025, these gaps had grown more pronounced. Those with limited formal education are less likely to go direct to news media for online news, and they are much less likely to say they are interested in news in the first place - and the pattern is the opposite for those with high levels of education."
Educational attainment increasingly divides news engagement and public orientation, with the diploma divide expected to continue growing in 2026. Profound social inequality exists in how news serves different parts of the public, leaving many groups disconnected from conventional news media. Over the last decade the gap between people with limited formal education and those with higher education widened in the United States. 2016 Reuters data showed only small differences in direct online news use and interest; by 2025 those gaps were much larger. Less-educated people are now less likely to go directly to news and much less interested, while highly educated people show the opposite pattern. The diploma divide reinforces trends toward social and affective political polarization.
Read at Nieman Lab
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