Sunday, February 18, 2007

A New Definition of Democratic Media

Survey documents

iFOCUS and pollster John Zogby have released a national survey of adults pertaining to American journalism. 72% said they were dissatisfied with the quality. 61% said they believed traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news.

Most respondents (53%) said the rise of free Internet-based media pose the greatest opportunity to the future of professional journalism and 76% said the Internet has had a positive impact on the overall quality of journalism. But they added that trustworthiness will be important to the future of the industry. 90% said trust will be key.

Despite concerns about its quality, 72% of those in the national survey said journalism is important to their community. More respondents (81%) said Web sites are important as a source of news, although television ranked nearly as high (78%), followed by radio (73%). Newspapers and magazines trailed – 69% said newspapers and 38% said magazines were important. While blogs were rated as important sources of news by 30% of the online respondents, they were not considered as good a news source as the backyard fence – 39% said their friends and neighbors are an important source of information.

Nearly nine out of 10 media insiders (86%) said they believe bloggers will play an important part in journalism’s future. “We’ve arrived at a tipping point. A new definition of democratic media is emerging in our society.”

The survey of 5,384 adults nationwide was conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2007, and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.4 percentage points.

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