Pew Research Report Shows Americans 'Graze' News

[Bozita]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2360777,00.asp

Report Shows Americans 'Graze' News
03.01.10
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By Chloe Albanesius

Not surprisingly, Americans are not tied to one news source, and about 92 percent get their news from multiple platforms – Internet, newspapers, TV, or cell phones, according to a Monday report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

"Americans have become news grazers both on and offline – but within limits," Amy Mitchell, deputy director for the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, said in a statement. "They generally don't have one favorite Web site but also don't search aimlessly. Most online news consumers regularly draw on just a handful of different sites."

About 57 percent of people rely on two to five Web sites for news, and only 35 percent have a favorite, Pew found.

Of the 2,259 people surveyed by Pew, about 59 percent get their news from a combination of offline and online sources. Only 7 percent use a single media platform, and those people are most likely to use the Internet or local TV news.

About 61 percent get news online on a daily basis, while 71 percent do so "at least occasionally," the report said.

Bad news for those who have criticized news aggregation sites – portal sites like Google News, AOL, and Topix are the mostly commonly used online news sources, with 56 percent of people using them on an average day.

Web sites for established news sources like CNN, BBC, and local or national newspapers also fared well, however, Pew said. A person's age, political party, and ideology all affected their personal preference for a particular online news source.

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[Echo In Light]

1. They prefer the usual disinfo outlets to help shape the collective un-reality