Seven in 10 U.S. Adults Say They Watch Broadcast News at Least Several Times a Week

While there seems to be more outlets than ever for U.S. adults to get news, a new Harris Poll shows that majorities choose to get their news most frequently from broadcast mediums. Specifically, three-quarters (77%) of adults say they watch local broadcast news, and 71 percent say they watch network broadcast or cable news several times a week or daily. On the other hand, one in five (19%) U.S. adults say they listen to satellite news programming or read a national newspaper (18%) several times a week or daily.

These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,985 U.S. adults surveyed online between January 12 and 17, 2006 by Harris Interactive^®.

While broadcast television news appears to be the most popular medium sought, many adults also get their news several times a week or daily by going online to get news (64%), reading a local daily newspaper (63%), listening to radio news broadcasts (54%), listening to talk radio stations (37%), listening to satellite news programming (19%), and reading a national newspaper (18%).

A key indicator of media usage is age. Specifically:

• Matures (those 59 years of age and older) are most likely to rely on more traditional media outlets for information, with at least eight in 10 Matures saying they watch local broadcast news (88%), watch network broadcast or cable news (88%), or read a local daily newspaper (80%) several times a week or daily.
• Baby boomers (those 40 to 58 years of age) use the most varied types of media, with at least one in five boomers using each medium examined several times a week or daily. Along with Matures, Baby Boomers are most likely to watch both local and broadcast or cable television newscasts (83% and 74%, respectively), read local daily newspapers (66%), and listen to radio newscasts (64%) and talk radio (40%). Boomers and Gen Xers (those 28 to 39 years of age) are most likely to go online for news (68% and 70%, respectively).
• Generation Xers are most likely to get their news several times a week or daily from local broadcast stations (69%) or online sources (68%).
• Echo boomers (those 18 to 27 years of age) are the least frequent users of media, with only about half or less getting information several times a week or daily from each of the media types measured.

"How often do you do any of the following?"

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

"How often do you do any of the following?"

Base: All Adults

Methodology
The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between January 12 and 17, 2006 among 2,985 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the sub-samples of Echo Boomers (310), Generation Xers (441), Baby Boomers (1,165) and Matures (1,069) is higher and varies. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (nonresponse), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample was not a probability sample.

W26567

Q946