Where are Americans increasingly turning for news and info?
Answer: Online and … get ready for this one … radio.
That’s according to a “media use and credibility” survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. and funded by ARAnet, which is an online content provider. The findings should be welcome to programmers accustomed to hearing about audiences turning more to other media.
The study found consumers relying less on daily newspapers and TV. “Daily newspaper usage dropped 4.1% and television usage dropped 3.6%, while radio usage increased 2.9% and online usage increased 1.9%.” That means of the four media, radio had the biggest percentage hike in the survey, which also found that “credibility ratings for nearly all types of media rose slightly from a year ago.”
The study involved 1,000 adults nationally and measured the percentage of news and information Americans receive from various media sources each month.
“Consumers reported getting 31 percent of their news and information from television, and 19.4 percent from both radio and daily newspapers.”
The media use rankings:
- • Television: 31.1% (down from 34.7% a year ago)
- • Daily newspaper: 19.4% (down from 23.5%)
- • Radio: 19.4% (up from 16.5%)
- • Online: 14.6% (up from 12.7%)
- • Weekly community papers: 4.4% (down from 5.1%)
- • Free shopper newspapers: 2.9% (up from 2.2%)
- • Magazines: 2.1% (up from 1.6%)
The company also found that “A trend to watch is the increased use of online sources for news and information among the college educated, Hispanics and people making more than $100,000 per year, compared to the general population. And, of course, the younger the respondent, the more likely they are to rely on online sources.”
