pew research part 2

According to the findings from section 3 of the Pew results, more educated people enjoy keeping up with the news more. This is not really a surprising series of statistics; people who put more time and effort into learning will be more interested in reading the news as a way of learning more. People who studied at a higher level of education are, in general, more interested in learning, and watching or reading the news represents a way of learning about the surrounding world. This might be not be the case with someone who stopped at a high school education – or lower. Many people also cited being busy, which I think is where the Internet comes in handy. People who are at work all day might want to come home and relax with a movie or tv show or something light-hearted instead of the news, but they would surely have time to spend 5 minutes checking the headlines in the office.

I thought the segment on diving TV news among party lines was very interesting. According to many articles I have read, a target demographic, the 18-28ish crowd, tends to get their TV news from shows like Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, two popular “fake news,” or news-satire shows on Comedy Central (Stewart’s Daily Show is mentioned in the poll). They might not always have the most information the fastest, but they present the news in an entertaining way that appeals to many people. Additionally, both shows are fairly liberal, and have appeal for those who might otherwise tune into Democratic shows. Personally, I know this is true for me. I still read newspapers and check news online, but if I am going to watch it on TV I would prefer Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert to some of the others on Pew’s list, like Larry King or even MSNBC, which is considered fairly liberal.

The information in section 6 about the prevalence of electronic devices, particularly electronic ones, could be either a pro or a con for the news industry. It’s true that someone could use a hi-tech Blackberry or cell phone to get headline updates e-mailed to themselves. But they could just as easily set their DVR to record the news, go home that night, watch the first five minutes to see the headlines, fast-forward to sports at the end, and completely skip everything else. Is this person more informed because they took advantage of technology? Not necessarily. But the study also shows that an overwhelming majority of people don’t get updates on their PDAs or cell phones, so just because it’s the technology is available does not mean everyone will want to make use of it.

As for the inability of the public to recognize the three facts (Condoleezza Rice, GOP, Vladimir Putin), that’s a statement about American interest in the news and not a failure of the news media. The journalists are reporting these things, but Americans are not retaining information; they skim the headlines with little curiosity and apparently come facts don’t stick. Or maybe they were never interested in the first place. In either case, it’s disturbing. On an unrelated note, I once read an article that said an alarming number of people could not identify Iraq on a map of the Middle East. Thousands of Americans are fighting there now, and I think that’s a bit of a disgrace as well (to say nothing of whether or not they should even be there in the first place). The cell-only survey seemed consistent with a younger, less-affluent audience, especially the higher numbers for online news and the Daily Show and lower numbers for print newspapers.