12/20/96
CONTACT: Guido Stempel, (work) 614/593-2609, (home) 614/593-8665
ATHENS, Ohio -- Americans are increasingly turning to television instead of newspapers as their principal source of news, according to a nationwide survey of 1,006 adults.
The phone survey, overseen by Guido Stempel, distinguished professor at Ohio University' s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, and Thomas Hargrove, reporter for the Scripps Howard News Service, found that Americans of all ages use local and national television newscasts more than other forms of media to obtain news.
Seventy percent of those surveyed said they watched local TV news four or more days a week, compared to 67 percent who watched network TV news four or more days, 58 percent who read a daily newspaper and 49 percent who listened to radio for the week of the survey.
"The best surveys in the 1970s indicated newspapers were the primary source of news for Americans, leading both network and local broadcasts," said Stempel. "There appears to be a shift over the last 20 years with local and network TV news use increasing and newspaper use declining some."
Results of the survey were published this week in the autumn 1996 Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
As Americans age, they pay more attention to all forms of news, according to the survey, which found that those under 35 years old use local TV news, network TV news, daily newspapers, radio news and news magazines considerably less than those over 35.
The biggest difference in the age groups was in network TV news use, where 45 percent of those under 35 said they watched four or more days a week. Of those over 35, 73 percent used network TV news four or more days, according to Stempel. People over 55 use news media more than people 35 to 54 years old, he said.
"This study shows that younger people simply pay less attention to all news media," Stempel said. "This is probably because their lives are busier and they have less time to attend to media."
While newspaper use as a news source may be declining, Stempel pointed out that newspapers still remain the primary source for some kinds of news, such as local news on government, business and schools. Most Americans use two or more news media daily, and those who use newspapers are the most likely to use other media, Stempel said. Despite the hoopla over computer-based news sources, the survey found that only 5 percent of the respondents used the Internet as a source of news and 3 percent used an on-line service.