Traditional News Media Still the Source for Most on Major News, According to 2009...

Traditional News Media Still the Source for Most on Major News, According to
2009 State of the First Amendment Survey

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Americans still support the
idea of a free press as a watchdog on government and turn to traditional news
sources on major news stories despite skepticism about bias in the news media,
according to findings in the first segment of the 2009 State of the First
Amendment national survey conducted by the First Amendment Center.

While innovations such as Twitter have attracted users and headlines,
television and other traditional news media remain the dominant source for
Americans on major new stories, the survey found.

Television was the first source for major news stories for about half of all
responding (49%), followed by the Internet at 15%, radio at 13% and newspapers
at 10% -- which places traditional news media (TV, radio and newspapers) as
the first source for 72% of Americans. Twitter, e-mails and social-networking
sites each were named by 1% of those responding.

Similarly, for 48% of Americans TV is the primary source for follow-up reports
on those news stories, followed by the Internet at 29% and newspapers at 9%.

As the nation observes Constitution Day on Thursday, Sept. 17, this first
segment of the State of the First Amendment 2009 survey reports how Americans
view their First Amendment freedoms, as well as the reach and credibility of
emerging news media. Additional segments this year will survey public opinion
on specific First Amendment issues.

Other results:
-- 71% still see a free press as a necessary "watchdog on
government," though nearly half of those responding (49%) strongly
disagreed with the statement that the news media reports the news
without bias.
-- Just 3% of those who had an opinion on Twitter found it a "very
reliable source of news" and 14% consider it "somewhat
reliable," while 21% said "not reliable at all" and 13%
said "not too reliable."
-- Many Americans have yet to "tweet": 49% of those responding
didn't know enough about Twitter to have formed an opinion. The
"reliability rating" rose only marginally among the younger
groups in the survey: For those ages 18-35, 3.3% said "very
reliable," while it was 3% for those ages 36-49. For older groups,
the rating fell: 1.9% for those ages 50-64, and 1.3% for those ages 65
and older.
-- Just 4% of those questioned could name "petition" as one of
the five freedoms in the First Amendment, the lowest for any of the
five
freedoms named in its 45 words.
-- Only freedom of speech was named by more than half of respondents,
55%.
Freedoms of religion, press and assembly were named by less than 20%
of
those responding.

-- Nearly one in five Americans (19%) see the First Amendment as
"going too far" in the rights it guarantees.

"The findings in this first segment of the 2009 survey suggest that while new
forms of obtaining information, including Twitter and social media are much
discussed and growing in use, most Americans continue to rely on the same news
organizations -- including the news reports picked up by online news providers
-- on which they have relied for decades," said Gene Policinski, vice
president and executive director of the First Amendment Center. "Clearly,
emerging media are novel and are finding an audience, but there still is room
for growth on the credibility side."

The survey's questions, responses and methodology are available online at the
First Amendment Center's Web site, firstamendmentcenter.org.

The first segment of the 2009 survey was conducted by telephone by the PERT
Group (formerly New England Survey Associates), and directed by University of
Connecticut Professor Kenneth Dautrich. The national survey of 1,003
respondents was conducted by telephone between July 25 and Aug. 3, 2009. The
sampling error is +/-3.2%. There is only one chance in 20 that the results of
a survey this size would differ by more than 3.2 percentage points in either
direction. The sampling error for sub-groups is larger.

The PERT Group is headquartered in Bloomfield, Conn., with offices in
Pittsburgh and Kansas City, and personnel in Stamford, Conn., Caldwell, N.J.,
and Philadelphia.

The First Amendment Center works to preserve and protect First Amendment
freedoms through information and education. The center serves as a forum for
the study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of
speech, of the press and of religion, and the rights to assemble and to
petition the government.

The center, with offices at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and
Washington, D.C., is an operating program of the Freedom Forum and is
associated with the Newseum.

SOURCE First Amendment Center

Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center, +1-615-727-1600,
gpolicinski@fac.org