Internet Growing As Source For News

Hundreds of years ago, all people depended on word of mouth for their source of want is happening in the world (news). But then the printing press was invented, and soon people were getting most of their news from newspapers. And as new inventions came around, the source of news for most people changed -- first to the radio, then television, and cable TV.

And it does not stop there. With the invention of the internet, a new and growing source of news was created -- and it looks like the internet may now be the most popular source of news today. At least, that's what a new poll (conducted between April 22nd and 28th of 863 registered voters -- with a 3.4 point margin of error) shows. The poll is by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind.

The poll's respondents were asked what their primary source of news was, and the following numbers were reported:

Internet...............44%
Local TV...............43%
Cable news...............38%
Network TV...............33%
Newspapers...............31%
Talk radio...............21%
Public radio...............18%
Comedy TV...............10%
Other...............5%

The numbers for the leaders are still within the margin of error, so it cannot be definitively be said that the internet is already number one. But if it is not already the number one source of news, it soon will be -- because it is growing very fast. Just a couple of years ago, the internet numbers would not have been nearly this high. And age is a large factor in the growth of the internet as a primary news source -- with younger people relying more on the internet than older people. Here are the numbers by age of those who list the internet as their primary news source:

18 to 29...............83%
30 to 44...............57%
45 to 59...............42%
60 plus...............19%