Where People Get Information about Restaurants and Local Businesses
The internet is the source that people most rely on for material about the local business scene and search engines are particularly valued.
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The internet is the source that people most rely on for material about the local business scene and search engines are particularly valued.
How do people get news and information about the community where they live? Traditional research has suggested that Americans watch local TV news more than any other local information source. But a new report by the PEJ and the Pew Internet and American Life Project, in association with the Knight Foundation offers a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the ecosystem of community information.
Citizens’ media habits are surprisingly varied as newspapers, TV, the internet, newsletters, and old-fashioned word-of-mouth compete for attention. Different platforms serve different audience needs.
Lee Rainie explores the role of social networks – the technological kind as well as the real-world kind – in shaping the way people gather community information and make sense of it.
Several local issues in California generated attention in the blogosphere last week, two of them involving allegations of political skullduggery. On Twitter, some bloggers fretted about questions concerning Apple and privacy. And on YouTube, a world leader was caught in the act of petty theft.
Local news is going mobile. Nearly half of all American adults (47%) report that they get at least some local news and information on their cellphone or tablet computer.
It is easy to oversimplify what is happening in online news. Breathless headlines — from the $315 million sale of The Huffington Post to AOL, Patch’s march to 1,000 plus local sites, to the early dismantling of TBD.com in Washington, D.C. – tend to obscure other important efforts, especially on the local front.
Seattle, perhaps more than any other American city, epitomizes the promise and challenges of American journalism at the local level.
After a couple of difficult years, finally there was some good news for local television. Thanks to the economic recovery and a busy election year, revenues rose sharply in 2010. As more stations continued to add newscasts in new time slots, the overall audience for local TV news actually held steady and new delivery platforms, including mobile, raised hope for the future.
47% of American adults use their cellphones and tablet computers to get local news and information
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