TV leads news, but Internet overtakes papers

Tim Burrowes

December 29, 2008 12:12

Television is still the biggest source of news, although the Internet is catching up fast, a survey of American consumers has found. The report, from the Pew Research Center in Washington, says that 70% of those surveyed listed television as a main source of international and national news for them. However, for the first time since the organisation has been doing the survey, more people (40%) listed the Internet than newspapers (35%).

Source: Pew Research Center

However, the statistics – based on speaking to nearly 1500 adults – seem to suggest that the Internet has grown the audience for news overall, rather than doing so entirely at the expense of other media. Those listing newspapers as a main source actually rose 1% from the previous year, while TV’s decline was far less than the Internet’s rise.

But the move to the Internet as a news source was greatest among the young, with 59% of 18 to 29-year-olds saying they saw the Internet as a main source of news, while television received exactly the same number. Among the young, newspapers were on 28%, up 5% on last year. Radio meanwhile, was mentioned by only 18% of the young.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.