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September 24, 2009 ― According to a new study, Americans are increasingly turning to online and radio sources for news and information, while relying less on daily newspapers and TV -- yet both TV and newspapers are viewed as the most credible sources of news and information.
In the second year of a media use and credibility survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation and sponsored by ARAnet, daily newspaper usage dropped 4.1% and TV usage dropped 3.6%, while radio usage increased 2.9% and online usage increased 1.9%.
The national study of 1,000 adults, conducted by phone September 10-13, 2009, measured the percentage of news and information Americans receive from various media sources each month.
MEDIA USE
Consumers reported getting 31% of their news and information from television, and 19.4% from both radio and daily newspapers. The media use rankings of the survey:
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Television: 31.1% (down from 34.7% a year ago)
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Daily newspaper: 19.4% (down from 23.5%)
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Radio: 19.4% (up from 16.5%)
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Online: 14.6% (up from 12.7%)
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Weekly community papers: 4.4% (down from 5.1%)
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Free shopper newspapers: 2.9% (up from 2.2%)
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Magazines: 2.1% (up from 1.6%)
MEDIA CREDIBILITY
The survey also gauged which media sources Americans view as the most credible sources of news and information. TV and newspapers rated best.
With the exception of television, which dropped 1/10 of a rating point, all media types stayed steady or increased slightly in credibility from a year ago. Survey respondents assigned credibility scores ranging from one for “not at all credible” to 10 for “extremely credible” to seven types of media:
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Television: 6.5 on a scale of one-to-10 (down .1 from a year ago)
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Daily newspaper: 6.3 (same as last year)
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Radio: 6.3 (up .3 from a year ago)
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Online: 5.7 (up .1)
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Weekly community papers: 5.4 (up .2)
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Magazines: 4.9 (up .3)
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Free shopper newspapers: 4.3 (up .8)
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