New @pew_internet and PEJ report on participatory news consumers http://bit.ly/PewNews. #media #journalism #newspapers #futureofnews Interesting new report: Understanding the participatory news consumer How internet and cell phone users have turned news into a social experience By Kristen Purcell, Associate Director, Research for Pew Internet; Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet; Amy Mitchell, Deputy Director, Project for Excellence in Journalism; Tom Rosenstiel, Director, Project for Excellence in Journalism; Kenny Olmstead, Research Analyst, Project for Excellence in Journalism The 50-page study is downloadable from Pew site - http://www.pewinternet.org/ Briefly... A national telephone survey of 2,259 adults found the Internet is at the center of the story of how people¹s relationship to news is changing. Six in ten Americans (59%) get news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day, and the Internet is now the third most popular news platform, behind local television news and national television news. The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get their daily news. The Internet is now the third most-popular news platform. It falls behind local and national television news and ahead of national print newspapers, local print newspapers and radio. Still, the overall reality is that the Internet fits into a broad pattern of news consumption by Americans. Six in ten (59%) get news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day. Just 7% of American adults get their daily news from a single media platform, and those who do typically rely on either the Internet or local television news. Amy Mitchell, deputy director for The Pew Research Center¹s Project for Excellence in Journalism, said Americans have become ³news grazers² both on and offline. ³They generally don¹t have one favorite website but also don¹t search aimlessly,² she said. ³Most online news consumers regularly draw on just a handful of different sites.² Internet and mobile technologies are changing people¹s relationships to news. Report authors point out that it is portable, personalized and participatory. But information is also becoming PERVASIVE, so you can add a fourth ³P.² We can get it anywhere, anytime if we are hyperconnected through wireless Internet appliances, and soon, as visual displays become faster, cheaper, smarter, it is likely to be embedded in the architecture of things everywhere ­ buildings, bus benches, kitchen countertops. It is an always-available ocean of information in our hyperconnected information-augmented (or ambient-information) environment. The rise of social media like social networking sites and blogs has helped the news become a social experience for consumers; people use their social networks and social networking technology to filter, assess and react to news. They also use traditional e-mail and other tools to swap stories and comment on them. ³News awareness is becoming an anytime, anywhere, any-device activity for those who want to stay informed,² said Kristen Purcell, associate director for research at the Pew Research Center¹s Internet & American Life Project. ³We see new segments of avid news consumers built around those who have set up news alerts and those who are eager to be part of the news-creation and news-commentary environment.² Other main findings from the report: · Six in ten American adults (61%) get news online on a typical day, and 71% of Americans get news online at least occasionally. · Getting news is an important social act. Some 72% of American news consumers say they follow the news because they enjoy talking with others about what is happening in the world and 69% say keeping up with the news is a social or civic obligation. Moreover, among those who get news online, 75% get news forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites and 52% share links to news with others via those means. · When getting news online, Americans use just a handful of news sites and do not have a favorite. The majority of online news consumers (57%) routinely rely on just two to five websites for their news, and only 35% have a favorite. · Portal websites like Google News, AOL and Topix are the most commonly used online news sources, visited by over half of online news users (56%) on a typical day. Also faring well are the sites of traditional news organizations with an offline presence, such as CNN, BBC and local or national newspapers. Age, political party and ideology all affect an individual¹s preference for particular online news sources. · The 26% of Americans who get news on their cell phones are typically white males, median age 34, who have graduated from college and are employed full-time. Overall, cell users under age 50 are almost three times as likely as their older counterparts to get news on their cell phones (43% v. 15%). · Americans have mixed feelings about the current news environment. Over half (55%) say it is easier to keep up with news and information today than it was five years ago, but 70% feel the amount of news and information available from different sources is overwhelming. · Americans also have mixed feelings about the quality of news today. Just under two-thirds (63%) agree with statement that ³major news organizations do a good job covering all of the important news stories and subjects that matter to me.² Yet 71% also agree that ³most news sources today are biased in their coverage.² This report is based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research International between December 28, 2009, and January 19, 2010, among a sample of 2,259 adults, 18 and older, who were contacted on landline and cell phones. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. For results based Internet users (n=1,675) and ³online news users² (N= 1,582), the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. -- Janna Quitney Anderson Director of Imagining the Internet www.imaginingtheinternet.org Associate Professor of Communications Director of Internet Projects School of Communications Elon University andersj@elon.edu (336) 278-5733 (o)