Americans’ Consumption of News and Information John B. Horrigan, Ph.D. Director of Research Pew Internet & American Life Project March 2005 Presented at the Associated Press Broadcast Meeting
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
Portraits of Access: March 2005
Broadband at home,
Trends in internet, home broadband adoption (% of all Americans)
What people do online – typical day (March 2005 Pew Internet Survey; * is Dec survey) Internet activityBroadbandDial-up Log on (any reason)69%50% Hobby2815 Job-related research2714 Audio/video clip*203 Log on wirelessly*175 Instant message168 Chat rooms52 Social networking4-- View images remotely32
Media use on the typical day (% of all adult Americans, PRC People/Press)
Fragmented media environment (% of all Americans who “regularly” go to news source: PRC People/Press)
Eight minute drop in daily news consumption over decade (estimate of time spent “yesterday” on news: PRC People/Press )
Young people spending less time on news: (TV, newspapers, radio) Average 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)
Growth of online news consumption (Millions of Americans who get news online)
Growth in internet to get news and information about campaigns
Comparative look at general news consumption among internet users (% in each group, on typical day)
General news consumption by age: integral part of newsgatherng versus complementary tool (% of home high-speed users, on typical day)
Political news consumption I: where people got most of campaign news (% in each group Dec. ‘04)
Political news consumption II: integral part of newsgatherng versus complementary tool (% of home high-speed users, by age)
Iraq war news – graphic images … internet integral for younger users (June ’04)
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 TV57%77% Web sites of ISPs4658 Web site of local paper or TV 4552 Fact check claims made about candidates* 3945 Web sites of national newspapers 2832 Purely online news sources 1223 Blogs920
Taking control of their media experience: blogging, blog reading, podcasting (Jan. ’05) All online usersHigh-speed at home, age 35 & younger Have own Web log (blog) 10%20% Read blogs2737 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% 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 usersHigh-speed at home, age 35 & younger Politics (jokes, petitions, lists with friends, discussion groups) 22%44% Online classifieds (e.g., Craigslist) 3642
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. Horrigan Pew Internet & American Life Project 1615 L Street, NW Suite 700 Washington, DC