Changes in News Sources by Ideology

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press just released a comprehensive study about Americans’ news consumption.

Americans Spending More Time Following the News
Ideological News Sources: Who Watches and Why

There are lots of nuggets in this report and blog posting. If you know the political leanings of your state or community you might find some of the lists of news sources interesting. Check it out. Here are the highlights:

“Other Key Findings

• While 26% of all Americans say they read a print newspaper yesterday, that figure falls to just 8% among adults younger than 30.

• Far more men (50%) than women (39%) get news on digital platforms, such as the internet and mobile technology, on any given day. Men are more likely to get news by cell phone, email, RSS feeds or podcasts than are women. But men and women are equally likely to get news through Twitter or social networking sites.

• More people say they mostly get news “from time to time” rather than at “regular times.” The percentage of so-called news grazers has increased nine points (from 48% to 57%) since 2006.

• Search engines are playing a substantially larger role in people’s news gathering habits – 33% regularly use search engines to get news on topics of interest, up from 19% in 2008.

• About three-in-ten adults (31%) access the internet over their cell phone, but just 8% get news there regularly.

• Most Facebook and Twitter users say they hardly ever or never get news there.
 
• One-in-four adults (25%) who have Tivos or DVRs say they program them to record news programs.

• About eight-in-ten (82%) say they see at least some bias in news coverage; by a 43% to 23% margin, more say it is a liberal than a conservative bias.

• Roughly a third (35%) read a book yesterday, which is largely unchanged over the past decade. Of those, 4% read an electronic or digital book.

• The public struggled with a four-question current events quiz – just 14% answered all four correctly. But about half (51%) of regular Wall Street Journal readers aced the quiz, as did 42% of regular New York Times readers.

• Among news audiences, Obama gets his highest approval ratings among regular viewers of Keith Olbermann (84% approve) and Rachel Maddow (80%); his rating is nearly as high among regular readers of the New York Times (79%). Obama gets his lowest ratings among regular Sean Hannity viewers (7%) and Rush Limbaugh listeners (9%).

• Partisan gaps in media credibility continue to grow, with Republicans far more skeptical of most major news sources than Democrats. The one exception is Fox News, which twice as many Republicans believe all or most of (41%) than Democrats (21%).”

It is definitely interesting that the choice of cable network varies by party affiliation.

Stephen