At times, those of us in the news business just want to
throw our hands in the air and scream when we hear about some new study that
shows how out of touch the general public is with current events.
A new, in-depth study by the American Press Institute has
found this little nugget: six in 10 people say they typically do not go beyond
reading headlines when following the news on a daily or weekly basis. And that’s
the percentage who actually admitted to API researchers that they essentially
have no interest in what’s happening in the world. The true figure must be
higher.
That six-in-10 number reminded me of a little shocker I
read about back in February when a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation discovered
that half of the people surveyed said they had never – never — read a news
story about Obamacare. Consumer’s Reports, which, of course, dedicates its work
to keeping consumers informed was understandably stunned by the lack of
interest in the Affordable Care Act.
Here’s what they said at the time:
“… Exactly 50 percent of poll respondents said they had not
seen or read a single news report about the health care law, though the Kaiser
poll was taken in mid-January after three months of nonstop coverage of the
disastrous rollout of healthcare.gov and the frantic (and successful) efforts to fix it. Of those who had seen or read news accounts, 27
percent said those news accounts were about how the new law was harming people,
compared with only 13 percent who said they were about how the law was helping.”
Most popular news topics, according to API study
Meanwhile, here are some of the findings in the comprehensive
API report that was released earlier this week:
* Almost all Americans report that they pay attention to
the news on a daily or weekly basis. Fully 76 percent of Americans report
watching, reading, or hearing the news on a daily basis; another 14 percent
report watching, reading, or hearing the news several times per week; and only
10 percent say weekly or less.
* Fewer Americans invest additional time into following the
news more in-depth. … Overall, 41 percent of Americans report that they
watched, read, or heard any in-depth news stories, beyond the headlines, in the
last week. Slightly more people, 49 percent, report that they invested
additional time to delve deeper and follow up on the last breaking news story
they followed.
* Older adults are also more likely to report reading,
watching, or hearing a news story in-depth in the last week. Fully 54 percent
of adults age 60 and over said they’d done so compared to just 1 in 4 young
people 18-29, a third of adults 30-39, and 43 percent of those 40-59.
* Income levels also are related to trust in news sources.
Americans with lower levels of income are more likely than others to report
that they trust 24-hour TV news channels such as Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC
“completely.” Just 6 percent of Americans with incomes greater than
$100,000 per year trust 24-hour news channels “completely,” compared with 19 percent
of Americans with incomes under $50,000 per year.

Recent Posts: