Q01
Message
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U.S. Political News Consumption & Trust Survey
Measures how Americans discover, verify, and trust political news across cable, print, social media, podcasts, and word of mouth. An AI follow-up interview digs into the specific story or moment that most shaped a respondent's trust — useful for newsrooms, media researchers, civic-tech teams, and policy groups tracking the health of the information ecosystem.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
13 questions · ~7 min
Q02
Multiple ChoiceRequired
In the last 30 days, how often have you actively sought out political news?
- Daily
- Several times a week
- About once a week
- Rarely
- Never
Q03
Multiple ChoiceRequired
Which of the following have you used to get political news in the last 7 days?
- Cable news networks
- Network broadcast news
- National newspapers or their websites
- Local news outlets
- Social media platforms
- Political podcasts or YouTube channels
- News aggregator apps
- Friends or family conversations
Q04
Best–Worst Trade-off (MaxDiff)Required
Thinking about these types of sources, which do you find most and least trustworthy for political news?
- Cable news networks
- Network broadcast news
- National newspapers
- Local news outlets
- Social media platforms
- Political podcasts
- News aggregator apps
- Friends and family conversations
Pick best & worst per setBest:Most trustworthyWorst:Least trustworthy
Q05
Opinion ScaleRequired
Overall, how much do you trust political news media to report events accurately?
Scale: 0 – 10
Min:No trust at allMax:Complete trust
Q06
MatrixRequired
How often do the following describe your own behavior with political news?
4 rows × 5 columns
- I check multiple sources before accepting a political claim as true
- I share or repost political news without reading the full story
- I encounter political news I did not deliberately seek out (e.g., on social media)
- I change what I believe based on a single source
Columns: Never · Rarely · Sometimes · Often · Always
Q07
Multiple ChoiceRequired
When you encounter a political story that seems biased or one-sided, what do you typically do?
- Ignore it and move on
- Look for another source covering the same story
- Try to fact-check the specific claim
- Share it anyway if it aligns with my views
- Other
Q08
Rating ScaleRequired
How satisfied are you with the range of viewpoints represented in the political news you currently see?
Range: 1 – 5
Min:Very dissatisfiedMax:Very satisfied
Q09
AI Interview
Ask the respondent to describe a specific political news story or moment from the last few months that either raised or lowered their trust in the media — anchor on what the story was, what source it came from, and exactly what made it feel credible or not. If they said they rarely or never follow political news, probe instead what would make them more willing to engage with it, and whether past experiences of feeling misled are part of the reason they avoid it.
Q10
Multiple Choice
What is your age range?
- Under 18
- 18-24
- 25-34
- 35-44
- 45-54
- 55-64
- 65+
- Prefer not to say
Q11
Multiple Choice
Which political affiliation do you most closely identify with?
- Democrat
- Republican
- Independent
- Other
- Prefer not to say
Q12
Multiple Choice
What is the highest level of education you have completed?
- High school or less
- Some college
- Bachelor's degree
- Graduate degree
- Prefer not to say
Q13
Message
That's everything — thank you for sharing how you follow political news. Your answers will be combined with other responses to build a picture of how people find and trust political information, with no individual answers reported on their own.
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
How it compares
We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.
Why this template
- Includes an AI follow-up interview that asks respondents to describe the specific political story or moment that most shaped their trust, surfacing context static surveys can't capture
- Combines a MaxDiff trust ranking across source types with a behavior matrix and bias-response question, giving both breadth and depth on news consumption habits
- Captures satisfaction with viewpoint diversity alongside trust and verification behavior, useful for newsroom and civic-tech reporting needs
- Pairs quantitative scales (opinion scale, rating, matrix) with demographic screens so results can be segmented by age, party identification, and education
SurveyMonkey
U.S. Political News & Information Survey TemplateA directly comparable, fielding-ready template covering U.S. political news habits and sourcing. It's a static questionnaire built for quick deployment rather than adaptive probing. Good for benchmarking standard question wording in this space.
What it does well
- Ready-to-launch template on the exact topic
- Backed by a large, well-known survey platform with broad panel/distribution options
- Likely includes standard demographic and media-usage question banks
Where it falls short
- No adaptive AI follow-up interview to probe the specific story or moment behind a respondent's trust rating
- No per-response quality scoring or automated methodology transparency
- No voice AI interview option for richer qualitative capture
QuestionPro
TV newspaper usage survey questions + Sample questionnaire templateThis is a sample questionnaire focused on TV and newspaper usage rather than the fuller cross-channel political news and trust picture (social media, podcasts, word of mouth). It's usable as a starting template but narrower in scope and reads partly like a question-bank guide.
What it does well
- Focused, easy-to-adapt question set for traditional media usage
- From an established survey platform with standard question-type support
- Useful as a quick-start for basic usage-frequency questions
Where it falls short
- Scope limited to TV/newspaper, missing social media, podcast, and word-of-mouth channels central to a modern trust survey
- No adaptive AI follow-up to dig into a specific trust-shaping news moment
- No automated quality scoring or auto-generated analysis report
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.