While most people think journalism is important to the quality of life, 64 percent are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism in their communities, a We Media/Zogby Interactive online poll showed.
“That’s a really encouraging reflection of people who care a) about journalism and b) understand that it makes a difference to their lives,” said Andrew Nachison, of iFOCOS, a Virginia-based think tank which organized a forum in Miami where the findings were presented.
Nearly half of the 1,979 people who responded to the survey said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, up from 40 percent just a year ago. Less than one third use television to get their news, while 11 percent turn to radio and 10 percent to newspapers.
Howard Finberg, of the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said the public often doesn’t understand that the sources they are accessing online such as Google News and Yahoo News pull stories from newspapers,
“It’s delivered in a nontraditional form, that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t traditional journalism underneath it,” he explained.
But Finberg said the study does support the belief among many large media companies that focusing on local issues is important to their journalistic and economic survival.
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