The book presents findings from a survey conducted in 1980, involving 238 journalists selected randomly from prominent news organizations in the United States.
[3] Critics have pointed out various purported issues with the methodology employed, including concerns about the sample size being relatively small, questions regarding the adequacy of randomization procedures, the absence of media owners, managers, or editors from the sample pool, potential biases in the formulation of survey questions, subjective classifications of viewpoints as conservative or liberal by the authors, insufficient measurement of public attitudes, and perceived shortcomings in the statistical analysis of the findings.
The survey revealed a group of individuals at once remarkably similar to one another in the background, status, and beliefs and strikingly different from the general public.
Thus one of the great strengths of the Media Elite survey is that it also included several sets of more precise questions about political attitudes and behaviors.
The responses showed little support for egalitarian socialist economics but strong endorsement of liberal social views in such areas as welfare, affirmative action, environmentalism, and, in particular, individual morality.
The authors also sought to provide insight into the future by conducting a separate survey of students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, a principal training ground for prospective members of the media elite.
The content analysis showed that the overall coverage of nuclear power issues tended to overwhelmingly favor the views of the journalists ("at six out of seven media outlets, anti-nuclear stories outnumbered pro-nuclear pieces by a wide margin”).