Americans’ Consumption of News and Information

John B. Horrigan, Ph.D.Director of Research

Pew Internet & American Life ProjectMarch 2005Presented at the

Associated Press Broadcast Associated Press Broadcast MeetingMeeting

Overview Trends in online use

Adoption rates Online activities

Trends in media use Offline & online

Patterns of news consumption among Net users Focus on segments of home high-speed users

Future: taking control of the media experience User managed & generated content Data based on surveys of Americans age 18 & older conducted by the Pew Internet & American

Life Project and, where noted, the Pew Research Center for the People & Press

Portraits of Access: end of 2002

Dial-up37%

High-Speed14%Work only

5%

Neither3%

Not Online41%

Portraits of Access: March 2005

Dial-up28%

High-Speed30%

Work only5%

Neither3%

Not Online34%

Broadband at home, 2000-2004

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Jun-0

0

Sep-0

0

Dec-0

0

Mar-

01

Jun-0

1

Sep-0

1

Dec-0

1

Mar-

02

Jun-0

2

Sep-0

2

Dec-0

2

Mar-

03

Jun-0

3

Sep-0

3

Dec-0

3

Mar-

04

Jun-0

4

Sep-0

4

Dec-0

4

Millio

ns o

f A

meri

can

s

Trends in internet, home broadband adoption (% of all Americans)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

All

in

tern

et

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Ho

me

bro

adb

and

All

Home Broadband

What people do online – typical day(March 2005 Pew Internet Survey; * is Dec. 2004 survey)

Internet activity Broadband Dial-up

Log on (any reason) 69% 50%

Email 66 44

Hobby 28 15

Job-related research 27 14

Audio/video clip* 20 3

Log on wirelessly* 17 5

Instant message 16 8

Chat rooms 5 2

Social networking 4 --

View images remotely 3 2

Media use on the typical day (% of all adult Americans, PRC People/Press)

60

4240

35

25 24

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

percent

TVNewspaperRadio newsBookMagazineInternet

Fragmented media environment(% of all Americans who “regularly” go to news source:

PRC People/Press)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004

Local TV

Natl TV news

Cable news

Newspapers

Radio

Online News

Eight minute drop in daily news consumption over decade

(estimate of time spent “yesterday” on news: PRC People/Press)

0

10

20

30

40

50

1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004

Watch TV News

Read newspaper

Listen to newson radio

Young people spending less time on news: (TV, newspapers, radio)

1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004

18-24 51 37 47 36 31 35

25-29 62 53 50 50 48 45

30-34 65 59 52 45 54 59

35-49 74 64 62 57 57 66

50-64 83 79 69 64 71 76

65+ 90 89 96 80 81 85Average minutes “yesterday”. Source: Pew Research Center for the People & Press, Bi-annual Media Use Survey.

Where does the time go?

The internet(number of minutes online, typical day – by age: Jan. ‘05)

70

52

99

69

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

all internet users home broadbandusers

under age 30over age 50

Growth of online news consumption(Millions of Americans who get news online)

15

25

35

45

55

65

75

85

95

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Ever getonline news

Typical day

Growth in internet to get news and information about campaigns

7

34

63

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1996 2000 2004 millions ofAmericans

Comparative look at general news consumption among internet users

(% in each group, on typical day)

66

35

20

60

43

33

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Dial-up Broadband

TVNewspaperInternet

General news consumption by age: integral part of newsgatherng versus complementary tool

(% of home high-speed users, on typical day)

53

35 35

75

61

47

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

broadband,under30

broadband,over50

TVNewspaperInternet

Political news consumption I: where people got most of campaign news

(% in each group Dec. ‘04)

65

40

24

17

70

3638

17

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

dial-up broadband

TVNewspaperInternetRadio

Political news consumption II: integral part of newsgatherng versus complementary tool

(% of home high-speed users, by age)

54

27

44

13

63

50

2316

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

broadband,under30

broadband,over50

TVNewspaperInternetRadio

Iraq war news – graphic images …internet integral for younger users (June ’04)

37

2724

34

28

24

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Prison photos Other contentnot in MSM

broadband, under age 30broadband, over age 50all users

The look of online news consumption for politics – Dec. ‘04(% in each group who regularly or sometimes did activity; * = “ever did activity)

All online political news consumers

High-speed at home, age 35 & younger

Sites of network TV 57% 77%

Web sites of ISPs 46 58

Web site of local paper or TV

45 52

Fact check claims made about candidates*

39 45

Web sites of national newspapers

28 32

Purely online news sources

12 23

Blogs 9 20

Taking control of their media experience: blogging, blog reading, podcasting (Jan. ’05)

All online users High-speed at home, age 35 & younger

Have own Web log (blog)

10% 20%

Read blogs 27 37

Download podcasts

3[29]*

12[43]*

* March ’05 survey. Percent of those with iPod or MP3 players, which is 11% of all adult Americans & 29% of high-speed users age 35 & younger.

Taking control of their media experience: music/video downloaders (27% of internet users; Jan. ‘05)

iTunes or BuyMusic.com 27%

Email or instant messages 20

Music sites like musicians’ own pages or magazines

17

P2P, e.g., Kazaa, Morpheus 16

Someone’s iPod, MP3 player 15

Movie Web sites 7

Music or movie blogs 4

Online movie service, e.g. Movielink 2

Taking control of their media experience: other many-to-many information exchange

All online users High-speed at home, age 35 & younger

Politics (jokes, petitions, email lists with friends, discussion groups)

22% 44%

Online classifieds (e.g., Craigslist)

36 42

A new news consumer? "We are venturing boldly, and somewhat

blindly, into this world of user-generated content." Jerry Yang, Yahoo co-founder

Labels: The “creative consumer” (von Hippel) The “on demand” media consumer (Arbitron) The “tech elite” (Pew Internet Project, Nov. ’03

report)

Tech elite & information Household as a node on the

information network Content is an intermediate input to be:

Mashed-up Recombined Redistributed

Content is fluid: Sometimes it’s free Sometimes they pay for it

Implications … for tech elite

News is a feature in the midst of the online experience

Value is connected to velocity Open door attitude vis-à-vis content &

intellectual property That’s the expectation for Tech Elite

Thank you!

John B. Horriganjhorrigan@pewinternet.orgPew Internet & American Life Project1615 L Street, NWSuite 700Washington, DC 20036202-419-4500