research

Internet leads as news source ... or does it?

A new report from polling firm Zogby International has troubling signals for conventional media of all types:

70% of Americans think journalism is important to the quality of life in their communities.
67% think traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news.
32% said Internet sites are their most trusted source for news and information.
22% said newspapers are the most trusted.
21% said television is the most trusted.
15% said radio is the most trusted.

Pew shines light on the elephant

Pew's report "Bloggers: A portrait of the Internet's new storytellers" has already been thoroughly discussed by the usual suspects, but I can't resist observing that the Hindu fable of the blind men and the elephant is once again in play. Much nonsense about the blogosphere has been written by people who apparently have encountered only the tusk or the trunk. The Pew report paints a more complete picture.

The middle-aged web

Pew has some interesting data on Internet penetration and usage around the world, and it appears that there's a big uptick in the numbers of middle-age Web users.

Yet the myth persists of a medium dominated by young users. The young, I think, are living in mobile text messaging and -- when at home -- AIM. To connect with younger people, do we need to be more "snacky?"

The aging readers of newspaper websites

I'm still catching up on good items that were posted while I was traveling. Vin Crosbie has a detailed look at who's using newspaper websites, based on data from Greg Harmon at Belden Research.

Among the key findings is that newspaper website users are growing older. We all are, of course, but this is collective data. It's not surprising; Web activity by people aged 40 to 65 has noticably surged in the last couple of years.