The landscape of local news in the U.S. has changed significantly in recent decades as Americans have been turning away from print and television and toward digital media. In 2025, 21% of Americans say they follow local news very closely, down from 37% in 2016.
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Report Summary In a month in which no single news story dominated public attention, Americans registered a strong protest about the amount of news coverage devoted to the marital breakup of Donald and Ivana Trump. A record 55% said there was too much news about the Trumps. This is by far the largest “over covered” […]
Report Summary The crash of an Avianca Airlines jetliner near New York’s Kennedy Airport was the most closely followed news story in January, according to the latest Times Mirror New Interest Index, followed by the Charles Stuart murder case in Boston, the arrest of Washington Mayor Marion Barry, and the acquittal of defendants in California’s […]
Report Summary In December, Americans paid great attention to the invasion of Panama. News of the Romanian revolution, however, attracted only a modest level of public interest. While sixty percent of the public followed events in Panama very closely, only 28% said that they were very attentive to the violent overthrow of the Ceausescu government. […]
Report Summary Only 28% of Americans are paying close attention to the sweeping political changes taking place in Eastern and Central Europe. This represents a significant fall off in public interest in this story since November, when the Times Mirror News Interest Index found 50% following very closely the breaking news about the opening of […]
Report Summary Two momentous news stories engaged the attention of a majority of the American public over the past four weeks. Nearly three in four Americans (73%) followed very closely news about the destruction caused by the San Francisco earthquake while half the public (50%) followed closely the recent news about the opening of the […]
Report Summary Two stories over the past four weeks are distinguished by how much and how little attention Americans paid to them. Reports of the amount of destruction caused by Hurricane Hugo were very closely followed by 60% of Americans, making it the third most closely followed story out of the 71 tracked by the […]
Report Summary News about the drug wars, international and domestic, dominated the American consciousness in September in a way that no other issue did. There was extensive public attentiveness, significant public understanding, and few complaints about the amount of press coverage devoted to the story:
Report Summary News about the crash of a United Airlines DC-10 in Iowa, and the American hostages in the Mideast, were the only stories followed very closely by large percentages of Americans in early August. The Sioux City air disaster and the murder of Marine Lt. Col. Higgins and related Mideast events, were closely followed […]
Report Summary China, abortion, and the flag were the stories that dominated the consciousness of Americans in early July. Each was followed very closely by nearly half of all American adults – a level of response that places these stories in the top quintile of all stories Times Mirror has tracked. Although all three stories […]
Report Summary The Alaska oil spill was the story that attracted the most public attention in early May. Nearly nine in ten Americans (89%) were following news coverage of the Alaskan oil spill very or fairly closely. A majority (52%) were following very closely, and a plurality (36%) chose it as the news story they […]
U.S. adults largely value journalists’ role in society but see their influence declining – and they differ over what a journalist is.
Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to both use and trust many major news sources.
Far fewer are hearing about the administration’s relationship with the media than was the case early in President Donald Trump’s first term.
This study explores the makeup of the social media news influencer universe, including who they are, what content they create and who their audiences are.
