Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Home Research Topics News Habits & Media

News Habits & Media

feature

News Media Tracker

Americans now navigate a quickly changing information environment, with a wide variety of news sources across many different platforms and channels. Explore data on how Americans use, trust and distrust 30 major news sources with our interactive tool.

Icon for promotion number 1

Sign up for The Briefing

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

Thank you for subscribing!

All

News Habits & Media

Publications

  • report

    Rising Fuel Prices Top Story for Public

    Overview Rising fuel prices topped the public’s news interest last week as the average cost of gasoline neared $4.00 a gallon. About a quarter (26%) say they followed news about rising gas and oil prices more closely than any other story, according to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted March 15-18 among 1,009 […]

  • report

    The State of the News Media 2012: An Annual Report on American Journalism

    New research released in this report finds that mobile devices are adding to people’s news consumption, strengthening the lure of traditional news brands and providing a boost to long-form journalism. Eight in ten who get news on smartphones or tablets, for instance, get news on conventional computers as well. People are taking advantage, in other words, of having easier access to news throughout the day – in their pocket, on their desks and in their laps.

  • report

    What Facebook and Twitter Mean for News

    Perhaps no topic in technology attracted more attention in 2011 than the rise of social media and its potential impact on news. “If searching for news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing news may be among the most important of the next,” we wrote in a May 2011 report analyzing online news behavior called Navigating News Online.

  • report

    How Community News is Faring

    In 2011, the landscape of community news websites reached a new level of maturity. Some seed grants ran out, there were more startups, some highly publicized closures and a clearer sense of what is needed to succeed.

  • report

    Year in the News 2011

    The faltering U.S. economy was the No. 1 story in the American news media in 2011, with coverage increasing substantially from a year earlier when economic unease helped alter the political landscape in the midterm elections, according to The Year in the News 2011, a new report conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

  • report

    Newspapers: Building Digital Revenues Proves Painfully Slow

    The newspaper industry enters 2012 neither dying nor assured of a stable future. The industry has rallied around a story about itself – that year-by year it is developing new digital products and new revenue streams to transition from dependence on print advertising. In 2011, that traditional advertising pool declined for a sixth consecutive year. The website of the Gannett Company, emphasizing those digital initiatives, now intentionally has no mention of newspapers on its home page.

  • report

    Digital: News Gains Audience but Loses Ground in Chase for Revenue

    Two numbers symbolize the intensifying challenge and opportunity the digital world poses for the news industry: In 2011, social media giant Facebook grew to 133 million active users from 117 million in the U.S.1 And in the final months of the year, tablet ownership in the U.S. nearly doubled, to 18% of Americans.

  • report

    Cable: CNN Ends Its Ratings Slide, Fox Falls Again

    After a year of declining revenues in 2009, followed by a year of declining ratings in 2010, cable outlets found some relief in the extraordinary news year of 2011. It was a relief, however, that could not answer the looming long-range audience challenges.

  • report

    Local TV: Audience Rise After Years of Decline

    After years of losing audience and revenue, local television news appears to have settled into a kind of equilibrium. Stations made less income in 2011 than the year before, but the decline was about what might be expected in a non-election year. And the overall audience for local TV news grew as stations added newscasts at different times and on additional platforms, including their digital channels. Local stations also expanded their online, mobile and social media offerings, but most have not yet generated a substantial audience.

Signature Reports

report
Pew Research Center illustration for America's News Influencers report; photos via Getty Images

America’s News Influencers

This study explores the makeup of the social media news influencer universe, including who they are, what content they create and who their audiences are.

Features