Pew Research Study

Media consumption and community type are intrinsically linked with variables such as accessibility, relevance and credibility playing significant roles in where people go for news.

This section contains results from a (US-based) nationally representative telephone survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, in partnership with the Knight Foundation. The focus of the survey is “how people get local news and information in different communities”. The survey was in field from January 12-25, 2011 and surveyed 2,251 US adults age 18+ and included 750 cell phone interviews.

The survey identified local news consumption by 4 community types – urban, suburban, small town and rural. The survey asked ‘what they rely on’ for information.

Some highlights from the survey:

• Overall, most adults follow what is happening in their local communities and the local ecosystem is rather complex - traditional and online.

• Residents in all types follow local news closely - 68% in large cities, 73% in rural, 67% in suburban and small town.

• Small city (31%) and rural (34%) rather than large cities (21%) and suburban (16%) rely on traditional forms of media i.e. local newspaper and broadcast television.

• Interest in local news is consistently high across different community types.

• Among all adults about one-third (31%) say local news sources provide all of the information that matters to them, with an additional 58% saying these sources provide at least some of the information they care about (total for the two response categories 89%).

• Small town and rural residents more likely to stick with traditional media.

How important are local newspapers to their communities?

Small city/town residents – most likely (61%) to be impacted if it didn’t exist.

Suburban	59%
Rural	56%
Large City	54%

Twenty-eight percent said it would have a MAJOR impact if their local newspaper no longer existed (in terms of keeping up with information and news about their local community).

Local Print Newspapers were identified as the preferred source for information on a variety of local topics across all types of communities:

 

Suburbs
Crime	35% Preferred local print
Taxes	25%
Schools	24%
Local Government	22%
Community Events	21%
Zoning	18%
Housing	25%
Social Services	9% (tied with local television)
Arts and Culture	28%

 

Rural
Community Events	28% Preferred local print
Crime	41%
Taxes	22%
Local Government	26%
Arts and Culture	26%
Jobs	21%
Zoning	19%
Social Services	18%

 

*Over all other traditional and non-traditional information sources, including word-of-mouth.

Click here to view a PDF of the full report