WE MEDIA –ZOGBY POLL: Most Americans say bloggers and citizen reporters will play a vital role in journalism’s future
Online survey finds general public, media conference attendees agree that traditional news outlets could do a better job
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2007
A majority of Americans (55%) in an online survey said bloggers are important to the future of American journalism and 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role, a new We Media - Zogby Interactive poll shows.
Most respondents (53%) also said the rise of free Internet-based media pose the greatest opportunity to the future of professional journalism and three in four (76%) said the Internet has had a positive impact on the overall quality of journalism.
The We Media survey results were released by iFOCOS and pollster John Zogby as part of an iFOCOS conference on media innovation hosted by the School of Communication at the University of Miami, with major support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
In the national survey of adults, 72% said they were dissatisfied with the quality of American journalism today. A majority of conference–goers who were polled on the subject agreed – 55% said they were dissatisfied, and 61% said they believed traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news.
Nearly nine out of 10 media insiders (86%) said they believe bloggers will play an important part in journalism’s future.
“We are now seeing mainstream acceptance of what we call the Power of Us - the value, credibility, and vital expression of citizen and collaborative media,” said Dale Peskin, a managing director of iFOCOS, the organization that conducts the annual We Media conference. “We’ve arrived at a tipping point. A new definition of democratic media is emerging in our society.”
Peskin said that, until recently, many traditional news enterprises have been skeptical about We Media. “They were either fearful or dismissive of our 2003 research forecasting and documenting the change in the media ecosystem,” he said. “Now the Zogby poll provides additional evidence that “We Media” is an essential component – perhaps THE essential component – for the agenda for news and information into the future.”
“The research documents the widespread recognition that control and influence on how we know what we know is shifting to a vastly more distributed network of empowered individuals and organizations,” said Andrew Nachison, co-founder of iFOCOS. “This obviously will have a big impact on how media organizations evolve and conduct business, but it’s really about how we all discover, create, share and apply information, and that’s important to all industries, to entrepreneurs, to non-profits, to governments, to individuals and to society as a whole. We are all part of the ecosystem.”
We Media Miami was conducted Feb. 7-9 with major support from Knight Foundation. The conference brought together more than 250 leaders engaged in media innovation. Participants represented a range of sectors impacting media, including new and traditional media organizations, investors and analysts, information technologists, educators and researchers, as well as bloggers, citizen journalists, and news-and-information entrepreneurs.
The Zogby Interactive survey of 5,384 adults nationwide was conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2007, and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.4 percentage points. The Zogby Interactive survey of 77 members of the media who attended the Miami conference carries a margin of error of +/- 11.4 percentage points. While periodic audits show the results from Zogby telephone and Internet surveys closely track each other, a companion telephone survey of this topic was not conducted.
Dissatisfaction with today’s news reportage is greater among those nationwide online respondents who identified themselves as conservative – 88% said they were unhappy with journalism, while 95% of “very conservative” respondents said the quality of journalism today is not what it should be.
Among those respondents identifying themselves as liberal, 51% said they are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism. Dissatisfaction levels were also highest among older respondents – 78% of those age 65 and older said they are dissatisfied. Most respondents (65%) also said they believe traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news, with the highest levels of dissatisfaction with traditional journalism among those age 70 and older (74%), the very conservative (95%), and libertarians (89%).
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.
However, a majority of the nationwide online respondents said Internet social networking sites and blogging will play in important role in the future of journalism. But they added that trustworthiness will be important to the future of the industry – 90% said trust will be key.
Liberal and progressive respondents were more likely to say newspapers are their most trusted source than those with more conservative ideological mindsets. But radio is the most trusted source for 28% of those who describe themselves as “very conservative”, compared with just 9% of liberal respondents.
More online respondents nationwide said the Internet was their top source of news and information (40%), followed by television (32%), newspapers (12%) and radio (12%). The youngest adults in the poll, those age 18-24, were far more likely to say they mostly get news from Internet sites—58% said the Internet is their main destination for news, with television coming in second at 18%. Fewer than one in 10 in this age group said they get the majority of their news from newspapers.
For comment or reporting on We Media, contact dale AT ifocos DOT org or andrew AT ifocos DOT org.
For a detailed methodological statement on the survey, please visit:
http://www.zogby.com/methodology/readmeth.dbm?ID=1170
For more on the We Media conference, please visit:
http://ifocos.org/2006/09/01/we-media-miami-overview/
About iFOCOS
iFOCOS is an independent not-for-profit organization committed to enabling a better-informed society. It provides a variety of services, activities and training that help individuals and organizations worldwide understand and use expanding media and communications technologies to innovate as well as to create better-informed global citizens. More about at iFOCOS at: www.ifocos.org
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The Internet is already drawing attention
[...] According to a new poll by iFOCOS and Zogby, a majority of Americans (55%) feel bloggers are important to the future of American journalism. Further, 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role. I am not quite sure of how they distinguished the two in the poll, but the results are certainly positive. 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. [...]
[...] Majority of Americans Feel Bloggers Play a Valuable Role According to a new poll by iFOCOS and Zogby, a majority of Americans (55%) feel bloggers are important to the future of American journalism. Further, 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role. I am not quite sure of how they distinguished the two in the poll, but the results are certainly positive. 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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[...] Em recente estudo realizado com os mais variados tipos de leitores dos Estados Unidos (passando por profissionais, conservadores, pessoas acima de 65 anos, entre outros grupos), constatou-se que 72% da população americana está descontente com o conteúdo informativo criado pela mídia do mainstream. Tal mudança já era de se esperar frente ao crescimento da We Media, onde o próprio usuário gera o conteúdo e interage com a informação de forma direta e atuante. [...]
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I found “We Media Miami” an useful tool for interaction the issues regarding Media.
Isn’t everyone’s favorite color green?…
Despite disparate backgrounds, journalists have a lot in common. And that can be a problem. People who work in newsrooms are immersed in the weird of the world, covering and obsessing about what’s going wrong. The stereotypical journalist isn’t an….
Should we not begin to think that citizen journalism will soon become the right stuff. This is because bias had and will always colour media reports.
And if We, us all, become the Media(WeMedia), it will be like a congress of conversations, which will eventually allow us free choices and inclinations, therefore man will hold his own opinion and act accordingly. Instead of being influenced by some doctrinaire rhetorics!
It goes truly so to say:
i) Interests-economic, political among others are determining what media has become
ii)It can not every TOM and DICK thing, despite the fact that the ‘us’ media-here WeMedia is going to be the core of media reports
iii).While many are dis-satisfied with quality, they should also be mindful of the defeatist impact of commercializing news,
It goes truly so to say:
i) Interests-economic, political among others are determining what media has become
ii).While many are dis-satisfied with quality, they should also be mindful of the defeatist impact of commercializing news,
IV)So it becomes more of non-issues, versus real issues.
I still feel the lack of intellectual definition of news, will also creep in on the ‘us’- media-citizens journalism. But it is the way the world goes now.
The simplification of journalese, may defeat the core ethical value of ‘What is news!’ DON’T MISUNDERSTAND ME, NEWS IS WHAT IS NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND THE CULTURE PLANE-But what culture?Illiteracy is rising seriously globally.
People don’t write and read between lines anymore than before, but between emotions more than ever.
[...] journalistic brigade. And there is also evidence that bloggers’ importance seems to be gaining ground all the time. Posted by Scott Clark @ 5:35 [...]
[...] at, say, newyorktimes.com. They are spread across gaming sites, social networking sites and… blogs. Gawker, the Smoking Gun and Digg are among in the Top Ten News and Information sites in 2007. They [...]
[...] “the with it and hip, a demographic that comfortably fits in the 18 to 49 age range. Well, about 85 percent of such people are online, and NOT exclusively hanging out at, say, newyorktimes.com. They are spread across gaming sites, social networking sites and… blogs. [...]
the media is totally biast most are democrats
I am 70 and verry conservitive and so is my wife of 47 years
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