A majority of Americans believe bloggers are important to the future of American journalism and three out of every four feel citizen journalism will play a vital role.
A new WE Media/Zogby Interactive poll has relevealed that most respondents (53 per cent) also said the rise of free Internet-based media posed the greatest opportunity to the future of professional journalism and three in four (76 per cent) said the Internet has had a positive impact on the overall quality of journalism.
The survey results were released February 13 by Pollster John Zogby as part of a conference of media industry insiders hosted by the University of Miami. In the national survey of adults, 72 per cent said they were dissatisfied with the quality of American journalism today. A majority of conference–goers who were polled on the subject agreed – 55 per cent said they were dissatisfied, and 61 per cent said they believed traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news.
Nearly nine out of 10 media insiders (86 per cent) said they believe bloggers will play an important part in journalism’s future.
The Zogby Interactive survey of 5,384 adults across the US was conducted between January 30 and February 1 this year, and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.4 percentage points. The Zogby Interactive survey of 77 members of the media who attended the Miami conference carries a margin of error of +/- 11.4 percentage points. While periodic audits show the results from Zogby telephone and Internet surveys closely track each other, a companion telephone survey of this topic was not conducted.
Dissatisfaction with today’s news reportage was greater among those respondents who identified themselves as conservative – 88 per cent said they were unhappy with journalism, while 95 per cent of “very conservative” respondents said the quality of journalism today is not what it should be.
Among those respondents identifying themselves as liberal, 51 per cent said they were dissatisfied with the quality of journalism. Dissatisfaction levels were also highest among older respondents – 78 per cent of those age 65 and older said they were dissatisfied.
Most respondents (65 per cent) also said they believed traditional journalism was out of touch with what Americans want from their news, with the highest levels of dissatisfaction with traditional journalism among those age 70 and older (74 per cent), the very conservative (95 per cent), and libertarians (89 per cent).
Despite concerns about its quality, 72 per cent of those in the survey said journalism was important to their community. More respondents (81 per cent) said websites were important as a source of news, although television ranked nearly as high (78 per cent), followed by radio (73 per cent). Newspapers and magazines trailed – 69 per cent said newspapers and 38 per cent said magazines were important. While blogs were rated as important sources of news by 30 per cent of the online respondents, they were not considered as good a news source as the backyard fence – 39 per cent said their friends and neighbors are an important source of information.
A majority of the respondents said Internet social networking sites and blogging would play in important role in the future of journalism. But they added that trustworthiness would be important to the future of the industry – 90 per cent said trust will be key.
Liberal and progressive respondents were more likely to say newspapers are their most trusted source than those with more conservative ideological mindsets. But radio was the most trusted source for 28 per cent of those who described themselves as “very conservative”, compared to just 9 per cent of liberal respondents.
More respondents said the Internet was their top source of news and information (40 per cent), followed by television (32 per cent), newspapers (12 per cent) and radio (12 per cent). The youngest adults in the poll, those aged 18-24, were far more likely to say they mostly get news from Internet sites – 58 per cent said the Internet was their main destination for news, with television coming in second at 18 per cent. Fewer than one in 10 in this age group said they get the majority of their news from newspapers.
