“The survey results being released by the group Monday offer another sign of how people are changing they way they get information. Technology has been reshaping the news business and the way consumers relate to it for more than a decade,” Vanacore reports. “The latest shift is being driven by the exploding popularity of phones that can easily access the Internet.”
“The new study found that 26 per cent of Americans get news on their phones,” Vanacore reports. “Of the 37 percent of cell phone owners who said they use the Internet on their phone, 72 per cent said they check weather reports. Current events came in second with 68 percent.”
Vanacore reports, “Just shy of 60 percent of respondents get news from both online and offline sources. And 46 percent said they use four to six different types of media on a typical day.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: The results were based on telephone interviews with 2,259 people over the age of 18, conducted between Dec. 28 and Jan. 19. For questions to that entire group, the margin of error was 2.3 percentage points. On questions to just Internet users, the margin was 2.7 percentage points, according to Vanacore’s report.
That’s where I get most of my news from. It’s a matter of convenience and portability; my iPhone is always there with me and I can read anytime I want.
If I have access to a television then it’s the Fox News Channel, the most trusted name in news.
These number will shift even faster as the iPad starts to spread across the country! You can sit and hope that the cable channels talk about what you want to hear about or just pick up an Apple device or Mac and get on with your day.
@R2
I wouldn’t call Fox’s content news… For real news in the USA you need to watch PBS. Anything else is flim-flam… Murdoch is despised by most Australians, and in the UK, for dumbing down news and interfering with his editors…
The more right wing you are, the more important it is to seek out balanced news coverage. Murdoch sees news as entertainment, and a vehicle for serving his own interests – informing people and presenting balanced coverage are two priorities that do not appear to be anywhere in News Corp’s business model. He sells advertising – so Fox news coverage everywhere in the world is designed to entertain, and sensationalise.
Thankfully we have the ABC and SBS in Australia – and in Europe they have the BBC and various other non-commercial news organisations.
You can be guaranteed that you will hear little or none of anything newsworthy that might result in offence to News Corp’s advertisers. Luckily for him, Americans seem to like their news sweet – like your food…
Portability is essential for me as I get news on the go, but sometimes the screen on my iPhone just isn’t big enough to make surfing news sites worth the while. I guess that is another place the iPad should come in handy in my day to day activities.
they aren’t really getting their news from their cellphone, only part of it, and it isn’t clear how big a fraction it is. not much information content in this poll.
@Byronic
All news organizations have slants, just like Fox. In order to get balanced news, it’s not about just using one source or avoiding another, but rather using many, finding the consistent facts, and reaching your own conclusions.
Interesting poll. How much “news” beyond soundbites can be read on a cell phone. Unfortunately, way too many people in the US look for confirmation/affirmation of their viewpoints as ‘news.’ Hence the rise of Fox & MSNBC, and talking-heads such as O’Reilly & Olbermann, or the bigoted, hate-mongers such as Limbaugh, and the despicably inane manipulators like Beck.
Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite, we desperately need you back!
@Zach
Yes, perhaps – but how many Fox news viewers watch PBS as well?
Either way, Fox News would not be on the list of anyone who is really interested in what is going on in the world. PBS’s NewsHour is shown on our multicultural broadcast service, which also has one of the best world news services anywhere. But no-one outside the US takes Fox seriously: its far too right wing for most of the world, and it just doesn’t cut the mustard as a serious news organisation. CNN has good world coverage, but there are too many ads and it’s too shallow in its analysis for my liking. I only watch it when I am travelling and there is nothing else…
If your public is uninformed, then your politics is skewed. If you watch a right-wing broadcaster and are unaware of how biased their coverage is, you are at risk of making bad political decisions. If you must watch Fox, then you should also watch PBS or the BBC or Deutsche Welle perhaps.
Murdoch looks after his own interests – unless you are moneyed elite, his interests are unlikely to coincide with your own.
Ignorance may be bliss – but sooner or later the penny drops. One day the American people will understand just how manipulative the Murdoch organisation is. Not knowing, not voting, not caring – a nation of people who live this way are easy to manipulate. I wonder when American tolerance for wealth distribution from Working Aericans to the moneyed elite will run dry… That day may not be too far off… Those few who help themselves to the wealth of the many will then face an uncertain future…
@ byronic
Way to kill a thread! Drop a reasoned exchange into the mix…
I do not believe these numbers for even one second. No way. Mind you, the study didn’t claim that 26% of iPhone users read news on their iPhones. It said “Americans”, meaning that 26% of the entire adult population reads news on a cell phone. That’s ridiculous. For starters, the percentage of people who own and use any type of smartphone for any type of internet access has to be less than 26%, which is a very big number in this context.