Analysis of media issues, politics and current events.
Last year, Newsweek asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test. Here’s some of the results they got. And they’re not pretty:
33% of respondents couldn’t identify the date on which the Declaration of Independence was adopted
65% of respondents couldn’t identify what happened at the Constitutional Convention
88% of respondents couldn’t identify one of the authors of The Federalist Papers
80% of respondents couldn’t identify who was President during World War One
73% of respondents couldn’t identify what the Cold War was about
59% of respondents couldn’t identify what role Susan B. Anthony played in American history
61% of respondents couldn’t identify how long a Senator’s term of office is
29% of respondents couldn’t identify the name of the current Vice-President
For more about America’s growing mental obesity and lack of media literacy skills, as well as a solution, check out my new book Does This News Make Me Look Fat? Available now at Amazon or go to www.junkfoodmedianation.com
- Tags: Americans, citizenship test, facts, ignorance, mental obesity, newsweek
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July 4th, 2012 at 7:45 am
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July 5th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
[...] The authors of the Federalist Papers: [...]
25 American History Facts Most Students Don’t Know « 2eyeswatching
July 17th, 2012 at 9:17 am
[...] The authors of the Federalist Papers:In Newsweek‘s U.S. citizenship test, few were able to identify the authors of The Federalist Papers. In fact 88% of respondents got the question wrong, failing to share the names of even one of the authors Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. [...]