Online 'overtakes newspapers' in US

The internet has overtaken newspapers as a source for news in the US, according to research data released today.

Only local television news and national or cable television news platforms are more popular.

The research, carried out by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, found that 92 per cent of Americans access their news using multiple platforms, including national TV, local TV, the internet, local newspapers, radio, and national newspapers.

Of the categories favoured by respondents, six in ten American adults get their news online on a typical day.

While almost 78 per cent say they get their news from a local TV station, 73 per cent say they get their daily news from a national network such as CBS or cable TV station such as CNN or FoxNews.

Just over half of the 2,259 adults surveyed said they get their news from radio stations at home or in the car.

Only half of respondents get their news from local newspapers while a minority of 17 per cent say they get it from national newspapers.

While the internet continues to grow as a news platform, nine in ten adults get their daily news from multiple platforms on a typical day, while 59 per cent source their news from a combination of online and offline sources.

Some 57 per cent of those who seek their news from the internet do so by accessing two to five websites.

One fifth of internet users visit just one website for news while 11 per cent routinely rely on five or more websites.

“Americans have become news grazers both on and offline – but within limits,” said Amy Mitchell, deputy director for the Pew Research Centre’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. “They generally don’t have one favourite website but also don’t search aimlessly. Most online news consumers regularly draw on just a handful of different sites.”

The research found that news consumption in the US is a socially-driven activity, particularly online. The rise of social media and the accessibility of the internet have impacted on the dissemination of news with 37 per cent of internet users contributing to the creation of news, commentary about it, or dissemination of news via social media.

Of those who use social media such as Facebook or Twitter, just over half say they get news items from people they know and 23 per cent say they get their news through following news organisations or individual journalists.

The survey outlined the news areas web users are most interested in. Eighty-one per cent of internet users follow weather-related news, 73 per cent are interested in national events while 66 per cent of online news consumers follow health and medicine.

Business accounts for 64 per cent, international events for 62 per cent, and science and technology for 60 per cent.

The survey found that an increasing number of Americans now use mobile technology to access the news, with 37 per cent of those who have mobile phones routinely accessing the web.