February 08, 2012
How the internet is changing us: CDF report looks back, ahead
Over the past decade, the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School has studied how the use (or non-use) of online technology affects actions and opinions in the U.S. Recently CDF published a special report noting 10 key themes that have emerged from this body of research. Here are a few highlights of special interest to news and information providers…
Trust is harder to come by online. CDF found that U.S. internet users are becoming less credulous. As of June 2011, “only 40% of users said that most or all of the information on the internet is reliable—a decline from 55% in 2000.” Also, currently 60% of U.S. internet users say that “about half or less of information online is reliable”—up from 45% in 2000. About 15% currently think that “only a small portion or none of online information is reliable.”
But mainstream media sites tend to attract more trust: 73-80% said most or all of the information these sites post is “generally reliable and accurate.”
Internet users value daily newspapers—but not enough to keep print editions alive. According to CDF: “The 2011 study found that internet users give high marks to newspapers for many characteristics, among them the quality of news content, local and national coverage, and providing trustworthy information. And 63% of internet users report they would miss the print edition of their newspaper if it was no longer available—up from 56% in 2007. However, internet users also report spending less than two hours a week reading print newspapers—an amount that has declined steadily since 2005.”
And: “We believe that most major U.S. daily newspapers as we know them today as print editions will be gone in about five years; eventually the only print newspapers that will survive will be at the extremes of the medium—the largest and the smallest. ...Local weekly and twice-weekly newspapers may continue in print form, as well as the Sunday print editions of metropolitan newspapers that otherwise may exist only in online editions.”
Tablets will take over in three years. This point is presented more as a prediction rather than a research-based finding, but if true it would significantly affect how news and information get presented online: “We believe that over the next three years, the tablet will become the primary tool for personal computing needs. Use of a desktop PC may well dwindle to only 4-6% of computer users ...and laptop use will probably decline as well. ...We do not see a downside in the move to tablets, but the coming dominance of tablets will create major shifts in how, when, and why Americans go online—changes even more significant than the emergence of the laptop.”
The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
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