The Future of Journalism
 
 

INTERNET ACCESS:

 
2000
2001
2002
Total Americans who use the Internet
66.9%
72.3%
71.1%
Internet use at home
46.9%
58.4%
59.3%
% of students who use the Internet at school
59.9%
72.9%
73.7%
% of employed who use the Internet at work
42.3%
51.2%
51.2%

MOST POPULAR INTERNET ACTIVITIES:

 
2000
2001
2002
1. E-mail and instant messaging
81.6%
87.9%
87.9%
2. Web surfing or browsing
81.7%
76.3%
76.0%
3. Reading news
56.6%
47.6%
51.9%
4. Accessing entertainment information
54.3%
47.9%
46.4%
5. Shopping and buying online
50.7%
48.9%
44.5%
6. Hobbies
--
--
43.7%
7. Travel information
--
--
36.2%
8. Medical information
--
--
35.5%
9. Playing games
--
--
26.5%
10. Tracking credit cards
--
--
24.2%

Amount of time online spent using the Internet for news gathering

 
% Time
Users online < 1 year
2.5
Users online > 6 years
7

<< UCLA Internet Report, “Surveying the Digital Future: Year Three" >>

Newspaper Readership

  • 4% of all Internet users reported reading newspapers less
  • 21% of experienced users (> 6 yrs) reported reading newspapers less.

<< Pew Internet Project: Getting Serious Online >>

Influence of Broadband

  People going online for news on any given day
BroadBand
46%
Dial Up
24%

 

 
Broadband users getting news from...
Internet
46%
Newspapers
40%

<< Pew Internet Project: The Broadband Difference >>


Work News Consumption

 
% Using
Internet
35
Newspapers
25
Magazines
21
Radio
17
Network TV
6
Cable TV
3
  • The majority of the users surveyed utilize online news services to seek personally relevant information, such as weather, stock quotes and local news.
  • The three news topics of most importance to the Internet news audience are local news, national news and world news.
  • Broadband users are more likely than dial-up users to use streaming audio, video and rich media to optimize coverage of breaking news and live events.

<< PR Newswire, “Study Shows At-Work Internet Usage For News and Information at an All-Time High; Audience Maximizes Online News Usage with Rich Media, Streaming Video and Coverage of Live Events,” Jan 8, 2003.>>


Significant number of people are actively** using the internet, at least half of them accessing news related information.

Broadband penetration is increasing, so we can conclude that more people will be actively using the Internet to get their news in the coming years.

**Is Internet use is inherently "active" since it requires self determined search criteria?

However, are they really active?
 
 
INLS 281 | paige west | Spring 2003