Complete Story
03/06/2015
New Pew report: Readers still rely on traditional media for local news
If you’re looking for the latest information on local weather, crime, or education, the place you turn for news likely depends on the options around you. In a targeted look at how residents read and react to local news, a new study from the Pew Research Center finds that almost 9 in 10 people follow local news closely, and that many still rely on TV and their daily newspaper.
To be certain, this study is an unusually targeted window into the lives of news consumers. Researchers studied the media habits of people in three geographically and demographically different areas: Denver; Macon, Georgia; and Sioux City, Iowa. It’s a chance to look at local news ecosystems outside the often noisy environments of the east and west coasts, but generalization is difficult — particularly when looking at metro areas with populations ranging from 2 million to 125,000.
In all three cities, a higher percentage of residents closely follow local and neighborhood news than do national or international news.
