MEDIA MATTERS
Americans believe Internet news most reliable
Only 1 in 200 expect newspapers to be dominant source in 2014

Posted: June 15, 2009
9:03 pm Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A new poll reveals that more Americans would choose the Internet as their only news source than TV, radio and newspapers combined, and Internet reports are considered much more reliable that other mediums.

It also shows only 1 in 200 people surveyed believes newspapers will be a dominant source of information in 2014.



The poll by Zogby International said as broadcast newscasts continue to lose viewers and newspapers struggle to stay alive, "the Internet is by far the preferred source for information, and … it is considered the most reliable source as well."

The survey discovered 56 percent of adults nationwide would pick the Internet if they were allowed just one source for their news, while television, newspapers and radio earned the support of 41 percent – together.

Among Republicans, 56 percent would choose the Internet for their news, while among Democrats that figure was 50 percent. Seventeen percent of Democrats said they would prefer newspapers as their only news source while 5 percent of Republicans made that choice.

The survey, which contacted more than 3,000 people and has a margin of error of 1.8 percent, revealed 38 percent believe news from the Internet is the most reliable, followed by television at less than half that figure – 17 percent. Newspapers were in third at 16 percent and 13 percent chose radio.

Since a full 84 percent of American adults report having Internet access, the poll "reinforces the idea that the efforts by established newspapers, television and radio outlets to push their consumers to their respective websites is working."



The poll said 49 percent of all respondents said national newspaper websites were very important and 43 percent said national television websites were important to them as a key source of news.

A total of 41 percent said local newspaper websites were important sources while 34 percent said local television stations were the same.

"That the websites of traditional news outlets are seen by a wide margin as more important than blog sites – most of which are repositories of opinion devoid of actual reportage – could be seen as an encouraging development for the media at large," the report said.

And forget Facebook and Twitter: Just 10 percent consider Facebook as important for news while 4 percent said the same of Twitter.

Eighty-two percent said they believe five years from now the Internet will be the most dominant information course. Television was second, at 13 percent. The survey showed that only one-half of one percent – 0.5 percent – said they thought newspapers would be the most dominant source of news in five years.

It was only a few weeks ago when WND reported its own 12th anniversary.

WND began with the vision of its founders to create an Internet news source that would employ the highest standards and practices of the traditional American press in the world of the New Media.

That commitment is still reflected a dozen years later in WND's mission statement: "WorldNetDaily.com Inc. is an independent news company dedicated to uncompromising journalism, seeking truth and justice and revitalizing the role of the free press as a guardian of liberty. We remain faithful to the traditional and central role of a free press in a free society – as a light exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power.

"We also seek to stimulate a free-and-open debate about the great moral and political ideas facing the world and to promote freedom and self-government by encouraging personal virtue and good character."

The ambitious undertaking was inspired by founder Joseph Farah's 25-year career in the newspaper business – a career that provided him with the opportunity to experience virtually every job one can do in that industry.

In 1987, Farah got his first opportunity to serve as editor in chief of a daily newspaper in Glendale, Calif. For the next two years, he ran the News-Press and a small chain of suburban weeklies with a combined circulation of 250,000.

In 1990, Farah was recruited to be editor of the historic Sacramento Union, the oldest daily west of the Mississippi and the first newspaper to hire Mark Twain – then known as Samuel Clemens. Among its other notable alumni were Bret Harte and Herb Caen.

It was during his time in northern California that Farah became fascinated with new technologies emerging in the Silicon Valley during the pre-Internet era.

"My work in competitive newspaper markets had left me frustrated with the inherent inefficiency of delivery methods, the high cost of newsprint and the growing dominance of a few monopoly media corporations strangling out alternative voices," he said. "The idea of an 'electronic newspaper' – one that could eliminate the heavy machinery and expensive supplies needed to be in the daily print world – was increasingly exciting to me. I had seen the future of news long before the Internet came along."

Inspired by the success of the DrudgeReport, the Farahs decided in the spring of 1997 the time to act had arrived. After experiments with less-ambitious websites that didn't require daily updates, WorldNetDaily was launched, without fanfare, May 4, 1997.

The news site quickly emerged as one of the most popular in the world – voted so, in fact, every week for nearly two years running between 1999 and 2001 on the independent, European-based Global100.com.

Since then, WND – as it is becoming known to its millions of unique visitors – has broken some of the biggest, most significant and most notable investigative and enterprising stories in recent years. (See "WND Scoops" for a comprehensive list of major WND exclusive reports that first saw the light of day in these pages.)

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