Horowitz: People Retain Faith in Local News; Increasingly Consume it Digitally

Tuesday, April 02, 2019

Rob Horowitz, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Rob Horowitz

While Americans’ perceptions of national news has become markedly negative over the years, perceptions of local news remain positive. More than 8-in-10 Americans are either very or somewhat confident that they get the information they need from their main local news source, according to a recently released Pew Research Center poll. The top priority for local news consumers is that the news supplied be accurate and they, by and large, believe that it is.

Americans’ faith in local news is due in part to the fact that the explicit partisan edge of national cable news networks, such as Fox and MSBC, generally speaking, have not filtered down to local news coverage. Local news providers are viewed mainly as connected to the community--not as interested players in the game of politics.

Local news consumers place high value on this characteristic. “An overwhelming majority of adults say it is at least somewhat important for journalists to understand their community’s history (85%) and to be personally engaged with their local area (81%), and at least four-in-ten deem each very important.” Their evaluation of local news coverage strongly correlates with perceptions of whether or not they view the local news anchors and reporters as “part of the community.”

Americans increasingly prefer to get their local news digitally with nearly as many people preferring to receive their news online as from television. More specifically, 37% of adults prefer their news online as compared to 41% that prefer to watch the news on television. Printed newspapers and radio now lag far behind in Americans’ preferences at 13% and 8% respectively.

People are acting on their growing preference for digital. “Overall, nearly nine-in-ten Americans (89%) currently get at least some local news digitally (through news websites, apps or social media) and 41% do so often,” Pew Research Center reports.

Nearly, 3-in-4 Americans follow local news at least somewhat closely, according to Pew. And even with the financial challenges facing newspapers and other local news outlets, most people believe they are well-served, getting information that they view as accurate and important. In today’s fraught media environment, this good news stands out.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.