Survey Shows Radio Flat, Internet Gaining As Source Of Election News

New Survey Results From Pew

Cable TV is still the leading source people cite as their primary provider of presidential campaign news despite sharp gains by the Internet, according to the latest survey by the PEW RESEARCH CENTER's Project for Excellence in Journalism, while radio remains flat from the previous survey in JANUARY. 

The survey of 1,005 adults OCTOBER 18th-21st showed Talk radio flat at 16% and NPR at 12%, well behind cable news (up from 36% to 41%), local TV news (32% to 38%), and network news (26% to 31%), and close behind cable news talk shows (15% to 18%).  Late-night comedy shows were up from 9% to 12%.  The Internet jumped from 25% to 36%, with FACEBOOK doubling to 12%, Twitter up from 2% to 4%, and YOUTUBE up 3% to 7%.  Local papers rose from 20% to 23%, and national papers were cited by 13%, up from 8%.

Radio's numbers are markedly down from the past: in JANUARY 2004, 46% of respondents said they "regularly or sometimes got campaign information from talk radio," which has declined to 35% in the current survey.

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