The Change In How People Get Their News

The news may not be any better these days than it was years ago.   There is much of it that can anger or depress anyone.   But there has been a change.   The change is in how people are getting their news.

Twenty years ago, nearly two-thirds of all Americans watched television to get their news fix, and a majority of Americans also read a newspaper and/or listened to the radio for news.   That is no longer the case.   While a majority of Americans still watch television for news, both newspapers and radio news have had a serious drop in readers/listeners.   The obvious culprit is computers -- the internet and its myriad news sources.

Today most Americans own a computer, and every year a larger percentage get at least some of their news off the internet.   It's just too easy, and you can get that news when you want it -- not when other sources want to give it to you.   Television has survived by having 24-hour cable news services, but even it has suffered some loss of viewers.

A new survey by the Pew Research Center shows just what has happened (and continues to happen).   Here is what their research shows:

TELEVISION
1991 viewership...............68%
2010 viewership...............58%

NEWSPAPERS
1991 readership...............56%
2010 readership...............31%

RADIO NEWS
1991 listeners...............54%
2010 listeners...............34%

INTERNET
2004 viewership...............24%
2010 viewership...............34%

As you can see, the internet has already surpassed the percentage of Americans who read newspapers, and is equal to the percentage that listens to radio news programs.   The internet is trending upward while both of the others are trending downwards, and there is no reason to believe these trends won't continue.   This is very bad news for newspapers and radio news.   How much longer can they survive?

While television is in better shape than newspapers or radio, it too is losing viewers across the board.   There is one television news network that is holding its own for right now -- Fox News.   They have done this by slanting their news toward and appealing to a certain segment of the population -- the right-wingers.   But the future may not be very bright even there.   The huge majority of their viewers are over 50 years old and as these people die off, their viewership will probably drop sharply.

For instance, Bill O'Reilly has 63% of his viewership in the over-50 category and Sean Hannity clocks in at 65% of his viewers being over 50.   By comparison, National Public radio has 56% of their listeners under 50 (about the percentage of under-50 people in the general population).   The real winners among the under-50 crowd are the New York Times (67%), the Daily Show (74%) and the Colbert Report (80%).