from the new west blog: election 2008
More Read Internet Than Newspapers for Campaign News
TV still leads, but even the tube is losing ground to the intertubes.By Jill Kuraitis, 11-01-08
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With newspaper readership flattening out, internet readership growth means the net is now more widely read than newspapers for campaign news.
Using the internet as a campaign news source has grown again since this year’s primary elections, according to a poll released Friday by Pew Research.
Television remains the dominant source at 72 percent, with the internet at 33 percent compared with newspapers at 29. That four point difference could be called a big number, considering that the demographics of readership break down pretty much as expected: younger people read the internet more; older people newspapers.
Nearly three times as many people ages 18 to 29 mention the internet as mention newspapers as a main source of election news (49% vs. 17%). Nearly the opposite is true among those over age 50: some 22% rely on the internet for election news while 39% look to newspapers. Compared with 2004, use of the internet for election news has increased across all age groups.
Even television has lost ground to the internet as a main source of campaign news among the youngest polled group, ages 18 – 29.
On television, the cable news outlets clearly dominate the big three networks as main sources of campaign news. Nearly half of the public (46%) turns to the cable news channels, with 25% naming CNN as a main source of campaign news, 21% naming Fox News Channel and 10% naming MSNBC. Only 24% rely on the network news outlets ABC, CBS and NBC. Another 13% look to local TV news.
The full report has some fascinating analysis of the partisanship of audiences of different news channels.
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