Where People Get Information

The PEW Internet and American Life Project survey revealed some great information and empirically stratified some characteristics of the American web surfer. I have talked previously about envisioning the populace as a singular entity surfing the vast sea of information that is increasingly saturating our daily lives. Each one of us actively searches for information on a daily basis and how we retrieve that information reflects the direction of where the flow of information is taking us. It is important to remember that while primary data such as surveys and questionares like the PEW document are useful in gathering empirical data, they limit any room for elaboration and should not be taken as the final word on any subject.

Some of the most significant information contained within the PEW survey involves the disparities between politically active young and old American web surfers. While the amount of people who actively search out political information on the web has nearly doubled in the past four years the trend is almost exclusive to young people. "...More than a quarter of [Americans] younger than age 30 have gotten campaign information from social networking sites...Just 4% of Americans in their 30s, and % of those ages 40 and older, have gotten news about [politics] in this way (PEW, 5)."

The PEW survey also points out that the majority of people who find political information online do so by "coming across" it while surfing the web. The "Long Tail" of websites that acompanies the major corporate news sites (MSNBC, CNN, Google News, AOL News) illustrates how the collective utilizes the web to satisfy an addiction to information that has both positive and negative consequences.

Where People Get
Campaign News Online


Total 18-29 30+
% % %
MSNBC.com 26 30 24
CNN.com 23 30 21
Yahoo News 22 27 19
Google News 9 10 9
Fox News 9 5 10
AOL News 7 5 8
NY Times 6 5 6
Drudge Report 3 1 4
MySpace 3 8 *
YouTube 2 6 *
BBC 2 2 2
USA Today 1 0 2
Washington Pst 1 1 1

Obviously the top three news sites are MSNBC, CNN, and Yahoo News but the notable mention of independant sites is significant because it shows that people are using multiple sources to gather their information. "For every person getting campaign news from a site like MSNBC or CNN, there is a person getting campaign news from a website that targets a far smaller audience (PEW, 16)." This could lead to a broadening of perspective that will hopefully creep into the Televised Media- still the predominant source of news media in America and considered by over 64% of Americans as unfavorably bias (PEW, 21).
Two final points about the PEW survey are that nearly half of uneducated Americans actually prefer bias news coverage that "reflects their political leadings" and that 54% of Americans think the Iraq War "is not going well (PEW, 22)." Overall I think that the growing trends illustrated by the PEW document are positive but I worry about the potentially disruptive transition from old guard to new as the generation who were born with Internet access begin to lead the country. If older Americans continue to ignore the tech-revolution how will that play out as newer technologies continue to radically alter the way we receive and perceive the increasing flow of information?



-NJF-