Spring Break
With digital rise, traditional news falls
Students disinterested in newspapers turn to online sources for news, lack of time means search for quick fixes
Nick Vardanega
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: News
Nightly network TV news and newspapers were once American institutions for coverage of important events around the world. Walter Cronkite enjoyed the title of the "most trusted man in America" while he manned the CBS news desk.
Now an onslaught of new media outlets have created greater competition for the attention of the public. People - especially the college-aged demographic - are turning to less traditional sources of news, like the Internet.
"Google News is the only one I follow," said Robert Leontyev, a second year graduate student in the College of Pharmacy. "There's no time for TV, I'm in the College of Pharmacy and there's not enough time to fulfill all desires."
A July 2006 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, an independent research group that studies public opinion toward the media, politics and public policy, showed the trends that have taken place in public news consumption over the past decade and a half.
The study showed that participants who had read a newspaper the day before had been steadily decreasing, going from 58 percent in 1994 to 40 percent in 2006.
The number who answered that they regularly watched nightly network news had fallen even more dramatically from 60 percent in 1993 to 28 percent in 2006. Local TV news managed to stay relatively strong with 54 percent, but that was down from 77 percent in 1993.
Use of the Internet for news, on the other hand, has been growing. In 1995, two percent of people surveyed said that they used online news three or more times per week.
By 2000 that number had shot up to 23 and 31 percent in 2006, putting it ahead of nightly network news and only nine percent behind newspapers, according to the Pew Research Center.
In the 18- to 24-year-old demographic, the number of people who answered that they read a newspaper or read online news the day before were the same at 24 percent. And only nine percent of 18- to 24-year-olds said they watched nightly network news regularly.
Now an onslaught of new media outlets have created greater competition for the attention of the public. People - especially the college-aged demographic - are turning to less traditional sources of news, like the Internet.
"Google News is the only one I follow," said Robert Leontyev, a second year graduate student in the College of Pharmacy. "There's no time for TV, I'm in the College of Pharmacy and there's not enough time to fulfill all desires."
A July 2006 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, an independent research group that studies public opinion toward the media, politics and public policy, showed the trends that have taken place in public news consumption over the past decade and a half.
The study showed that participants who had read a newspaper the day before had been steadily decreasing, going from 58 percent in 1994 to 40 percent in 2006.
The number who answered that they regularly watched nightly network news had fallen even more dramatically from 60 percent in 1993 to 28 percent in 2006. Local TV news managed to stay relatively strong with 54 percent, but that was down from 77 percent in 1993.
Use of the Internet for news, on the other hand, has been growing. In 1995, two percent of people surveyed said that they used online news three or more times per week.
By 2000 that number had shot up to 23 and 31 percent in 2006, putting it ahead of nightly network news and only nine percent behind newspapers, according to the Pew Research Center.
In the 18- to 24-year-old demographic, the number of people who answered that they read a newspaper or read online news the day before were the same at 24 percent. And only nine percent of 18- to 24-year-olds said they watched nightly network news regularly.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Pablo
posted 4/06/07 @ 11:12 AM PST
"Students disinterested in newspapers turn to online sources for news..."
I first read that byline in The Daily Barometer print edition, a newspaper. (Continued…)
Pablo Mac
Pablo Mac
posted 4/06/07 @ 11:15 AM PST
"Students disinterested in newspapers turn to online sources for news..."
I first read that byline in the print (gasp - a newspaper!) edition of The Daily Barometer. (Continued…)
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