Local and Network TV See Steep Declines as News Sources

Facebook and Twitter have a “quite modest” place in users’ political information systems.

The long term declines in the number of people getting news from such sources as local TV and network news shows have steepened this year. Just 20% say they regularly learn something about the presidential campaign or candidates from their local newspapers. In 2008, 31% said they got campaign news from their daily newspaper and 40% did so in the 2000 election cycle.

There are comparable declines in the share of people regularly getting campaign information from network evening news programs and local TV news.

For all three of these sources, the rate of decline slowed during the 2008 election cycle, but has again continued on a steep downward track, according to a study from the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press just released.

The number of people gathering campaign news online, which nearly tripled between 2000 and 2008, has leveled off in 2012. In previous campaigns, declining figures for traditional TV and newspapers as sources were at least partly offset by increasing numbers turning to the internet.

Not so in 2012, as the number regularly getting campaign news online is flat. This is likely due to a lack of interest in the 2012 campaign among younger Americans, who have traditionally been the broadest internet news consumers, and who also are less apt to be Republicans. 

The one constant over the course of the past four elections, Pew says, is the reach of cable news with CNN by far the leader. Currently, 36% of Americans say they are regularly learning about the candidates or campaign on cable news networks. That is virtually unchanged from previous campaigns, yet cable news is now the top regular source for campaign news. The cable networks also hosted most of the candidate debates. Nearly half of Republicans (47%) have watched a GOP debate during this campaign, up from 32% at a comparable point four years ago.

One intriguing finding is that Facebook and Twitter have a “quite modest” place in users’ political information systems so far in this campaign: 20% of Americans get campaign news from Facebook “regularly” or “sometimes” and 5% of Americans get campaign news from Twitter. Heavy majorities of both Facebook and Twitter users report they “hardly ever” or “never” learn about the candidates or campaign from those social media sources.