MIAMI -- When it comes to using the Internet, high school students not
only pay attention to the news, they like traditional news sources more
than most might think.
A majority of high school students say they're plugged into the news on
the Internet at least weekly, and they are getting most of their news
from Internet portals and mainstream media Web sites -- not from blogs,
according to a
new survey [PDF] of 15,000 high school students by the
John S.
and James L. Knight Foundation. You'll find more about the survey
here.
"The digital revolution is increasing, not decreasing, the connection
between American teens and news," said Eric Newton, director of Knight
Foundation's Journalism Initiatives.
Students who go online get most of their news from the news pages of
Internet portals like
Google and
Yahoo!, followed by national TV news
sites, and local TV and daily newspaper sites. Blogs came in fourth
place, according to the survey, part of
Knight Foundation's "2006 Future of the First Amendment" study.
A majority of high school students find TV, followed by newspapers, to
be the most accurate news sources. They don't trust the accuracy of
blogs, according to the survey.
But despite their reliance on traditional news sources, nearly half of
high school students say they also get news and information from
entertainment programs like
"The Daily Show" and others at least once a
week.
The survey reported its margin of error as plus or minus one percent
for the students and plus or minus 3.6 percent for the teachers.
Additional details about the study's methodology can be found on page
nine of the attached PDF:
Knight Foundation study. You can answer the survey questions yourself
here.
Key findings of the survey include:
• Sixty-six percent of high school students get their news
and information from the news pages of Internet portals such as Google
and Yahoo!, 45 percent from national TV news Web sites, 34 percent from
local TV or newspaper Web sites, 32 percent from blogs and 21 percent
from national newspaper sites.
• Forty-five percent of high school students say TV provides
the most accurate news, 23 percent say newspapers and 10 percent say
blogs.
• Forty-six percent of students get news and information at
least once a week from entertainment shows such as "The Daily Show,"
"The
Colbert Report" and
"South Park."
• Thirty-one percent of high school students post comments on blogs or online columns at least once a week.
• Only 10 percent of teens say they are not at all
interested in the news, mostly because they feel it isn't presented in
an interesting way.
• Nine of 10 teens are wired to the Internet through school and eight in 10 through the home.
"When teens say they follow 'news,' sometimes they are talking about
"The Daily Show," but more often than that they're talking about the news
pages of Google and Yahoo! -- and they may even be talking about
CNN.com
or
MSNBC.com," Newton said.
This 2006 survey is
the second part of an update to
Knight Foundation's
2004 study, which questioned more than 100,000 students and 8,000
teachers -- the largest survey of its kind -- about their attitudes and
knowledge of the First Amendment. Dr. David Yalof and Dr. Kenneth
Dautrich conducted the research for both surveys.
Earlier this week, Knight Foundation released the first part of the
update, discovering that U.S. high school students know a bit
more about the First Amendment than they did two years ago because
schools are offering more classes that teach about this fundamental law.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism
excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of U.S. communities
where the Knight brothers owned newspapers.
Since its creation in 1950, the foundation has invested nearly $300
million to advance journalism quality and freedom of expression.
