Newspapers beat web on news

2010-01-11 22:25

Washington - Newspapers and other "traditional media" still generate the bulk of news that gets to US consumers despite the rising importance of online media, according to a study released on Monday.

The report by the Pew Research Centre's Project for Excellence in Journalism, based on a study of media in Baltimore, Maryland, found that 95% of stories with "new information" came from traditional media, mainly newspapers.

"Most of what the public learns is still overwhelmingly driven by traditional media - particularly newspapers," the report concluded.

"These stories then tended to set the narrative agenda for most other media outlets."

The study found that most of the newer providers, including online blogs and those that use social media such as Twitter, "did not produce any local content" during the period studied.

In studying six major news "threads", the researchers concluded that "83% of stories were essentially repetitive, conveying no new information."

Of the 17% that did contain new information, "nearly all came from traditional media either in their legacy platforms or in new digital ones," the researchers said.

Local content

The report found general interest newspapers generated 48% of the news and specialty newspapers such as those dedicated to business or law produced another 13%.

Local television accounted for 28% of news gathering and "new media" outlets just 4% of "enterprise reporting", Pew said.

The researchers said this raises concerns for journalism because of the crisis faced by newspapers and other traditional media that have forced cutbacks in news coverage.

"As the economic model that has subsidised professional journalism collapses, the number of people gathering news in traditional television, print and radio organisations is shrinking markedly," they wrote.

This may lead to greater government influence over the news since much of the "new media" reports simply convey the official version of events without attempting to offer different points of view.

"As news is posted faster, often with little enterprise reporting added, the official version of events is becoming more important," the study concluded.

"We found official press releases often appear word for word in first accounts of events, though often not noted as such."

In other problems with online news, Pew said, "formal procedures for citing and crediting can get lost".

"We found numerous examples of websites carrying sections of other people's work without attribution and often suggesting original reporting was added when none was," the report added.

"And sometimes old stories that were already obsolete were posted or linked to after events had changed and the original news site had updated them."

- SAPA