With the ascent of online news sources and the advent of social media, news is becoming portable, personalized and participatory. Now more than ever, people are accessing multiple media platforms to get their news.
Recent findings from the Pew Research Center prove that “The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get news on a typical day, including national TV, local TV, the Internet, local newspapers, radio and national newspapers.”
The Internet is now the second most popular medium to get the news, behind local and national TV. In addition to turning to the Internet, studies show that “One quarter (26%) of all Americans say they get some form of news via cell phone,” and this news is coming in a variety of forms consisting of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, blogs and e-mails.
For some, staying current on the news has provided a way to be socially active. The Pew study found that “Some 72 percent of American news consumers say they follow the news because they enjoy talking with others about what is happening in the world and 69 percent say keeping up with the news is a social or civic obligation.”
Lastly, the Internet allows people to access the news in a much more personal format than other news platforms. Readers can customize their homepage to contain articles from favorite sites or about favorite topics. According to the Pew Research findings 40 percent of Internet users said “an important feature of a news Web site to them is the ability to customize the news they get from the site.”
Furthermore, the ability to communicate to large social networks from smartphones and laptops is creating a citizen journalist culture where anyone can capture, share and report on events and news in real time. Just think back to when US Airways flight 1549 made an emergency landing on the Hudson River. The first reports of this accident came in from Twitter.
For more information and status around the consumption of news, I would encourage you to read the full study. As PR professionals, we found the findings to be quite interesting and informative as we continue to think about the most effective ways to reach consumers and business decision makers alike.
Finally, we’d love to hear from you on the number of ways you access news today. Do you get your news from four to six different platforms? If so, which ones?