Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The goal of this study is to document empirically the growing impact of Internet news consumption on traditional news usage. Data for this study comes from four nationally representative telephone surveys conducted among American adults in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. Each of the surveys contains the same questions regarding respondents’ exposure to news on television, newspapers, radio, magazines, and the Internet. The findings show that the consumption of Internet news does not decrease the time spent with traditional news sources, even among those most likely to be affected. In all four surveys that were conducted between 1998 and 2004, Internet news consumption correlated positively with the use of traditional news sources. Overall, this indicates that heavy Internet users are supplementing rather than displacing their overall news consumption with time spent on the Internet.