That's the Way it is
With the 24 hour news cycle, news is instant, rapid, and easy to grab. Americans are getting their news from multiple channels, on various platforms, from various devices. The landscape for news consumptiion , gathering, and reading is changing. Given this dynamic, the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Project for Excellence in Journalism did a survey to try and determine when and where Americans were getting their news and information. Below are key data points regarding their study.
OVERVIEW
92% of Americans use multiple platforms to get news on a typical day
46% of Americans say they get news from 4-6 media platforms
7% get their news from a single media platform
59% get news from a combination of online and offline sources
MOBILE
80% of American adults have cell phones, and 33% of them access news from their cells—that equates to 26% of all Americans getting their news from cell phones.
CUSTOMIZED
28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that interest them.
CREATION
37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
SHARING
80% of people who get their news from online, share the news links in email; many others post news stories, highlight news in their tweets or re-tweet, and discuss online.
News gathering is changing due to social networking technology and personal devices and mobile computing
QUANTITY
57% of online news consumers say they visit 2-5 websites for their news.
21% regularly rely on just one site.
65% say they do not have one favorite site
SOCIAL
72% of American news consumers say they follow the news because they enjoy talking with others (water cooler)
69% say keeping up with the news is a social or civic obligation.
50% of Americans say they rely to some degree on people telling them the news.
75% of online news consumers say they get news forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites
52% say they share links to news with others via those means.
51% of social networking sites users who are also online news consumers say that on a typical day they get news items from people they follow.
Another 23% of this group follow news organizations or individual journalists on social networking sites.
PARTICIPATION
37% of Internet users have participated in creating, commenting, or distributing news by use of social media channels; specifically, commenting on a story, posting a link, tagging content, creating their own news or feature, or Tweeting about the news
As you can see, the Internet and technology has changed the way Americans view their news. These statistics were taken exclusively from the Pew Internet study. To read the study in its entirety, visithttp://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Online-News.aspx?r=1
