The Prism Project: How the Public Judges Information
Established in 2026, Illuminate’s thought leadership series, The Prism Project, sheds light on public opinion across a range of timely and consequential topics shaping society. The first study in the series, How the Public Judges Information, draws from a nationwide survey of 1,000 registered voters and provides a detailed look at how Americans determine what information they trust in an increasingly complex media landscape. To better understand the forces shaping these behaviors, Illuminate developed a five-segment attitudinal model based on the study’s findings that explains how voters differ in the way they process, judge, and share information.
Trust doesn’t necessarily dictate the sources voters use. Not all of voters’ most used sources of information are their most trusted, nor vice versa.
50% get information about current events from social media, but only 30% consider it a trustworthy source
49% get information from local news organizations, while 67% consider them a trustworthy source
26% get information from national newspapers, while 58% consider them a trustworthy source