When it comes to getting their news Americans are becoming more diversified and better equipped.
The recent finding of a study released by the Pew Research Center finds that 92% of the public uses multiple platforms to get their news information each day. Among these platforms are national and local television and newspapers, the internet and radio. Barely less than half (46%) of Americans suggest they operate through four to six media platforms each day and only trace percentages of the population (7%) use but one outlet for their daily news information.
Newspapers and the print media have been forced to deal with the encroaching internet for many years now, but perhaps they are not alone in their dilemma. With 59% of Americans claiming they get at least some of their daily news information online the web has now moved up to the third most popular outlet behind only local and national TV broadcasts. Pegging down exactly where users go on the web is a bit more difficult however. Nearly two-thirds (65%) claim not to have a single favorite news website. One-third of the online crowd meanwhile accesses news regularly from their cell phone.
Mobile technology and social networking have become essential to the surge of the internet in passing both newspapers and news radio. Cell phones as mobile devices allow users to gather news information anywhere and at any time during the day. With 80% of the public now owning a cell phone and 33% of that total using those devices for news, a total of 26% of all Americans get some form of news from their cell phone each day. Participation through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have also become responsible in the spreading of news. Eight of ten individuals polled, who use the internet for news, send or receive links to web pages with articles on news topics. 37% meanwhile claim to have contributed to the creation or dissemination of news through personally written articles, blogs, or online commentary.
More than eight out of ten Americans (81%) say they follow news at least “some of the time” and only 38% rely solely on offline sources for their daily news. For those who do use the web the Pew study finds a clear majority (65%) of people are not loyal to any particular news source. Television is still the news leader with 78% gathering their daily information from local sources and 73% relying on national news. 61% say they get some kind of news online, 54% are tuned to their local radio and half (50%) read a daily newspaper.
Tracking the online behavior of Americans shows the weather, being followed by 81% of news seekers on the web, as the number one news topic. National events at 73% are second followed by health and medicine (66%), business and the economy (64%), international events (62%) and science and technology (60%). Three-quarters (75%) of the online public receives news through email and social networking sites and more than half (52%) claim they personally forward web links on news stories to family and friends.
Does quality suffer in the wake of better access? Asked the question of whether “major news organizations do a good job covering all the important news stories and subjects that matter to me”, 63% agree. However 72% of Americans consider news sources to be biased in their coverage. Of course a clear majority of conservatives think their media outlets do a good job in covering the news that is important to them and liberals are similarly supportive when the media “bias” swings in their preferred direction.
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