The Pew Research Center just offered an interesting study considering how individuals get their news and what they have learned. Of particular interest were those who relied primarily on social media.
In general, those who rely on social media and local television for news are the least knowledgeable. Younger individuals (18-29) are the group that most heavily relies on social media and older individuals (but not the oldest) are most likely to rely on local television.
The researchers asked nearly 30 questions to estimate knowledge, but did differentiate a set of 9 questions focused on political issues. Respondents were grouped by the number of questions answered correctly with those who relied on social media were most likely to end up in the lowest knowledge group (<5 questions).
The researchers also asked about knowledge of several conspiracy theories. In this case, the social media-focused were most likely to be aware of the conspiracy theories. This study did not evaluate whether the participants believed the conspiracy theories.