News for Digital Journalists
Posts tagged with: Demographics
April 27, 2010
When news breaks around the world—or when you just want to know what life is like in Benin or Belarus—a good resource for word from another country is Global Voices Online. This site aggregates and curates blogs from around the world. Who’s writing there? This week GVO released new demographics about the bloggers who contribute to the site. Out of an estimated 200 active site contributors, about 116 responded.
The largest proportion of contributors (42%) blog from countries in the Americas—but only 16% of these are from the US. Here are the numbers for the rest of the world…
- Western Europe: 17%
- East Asia: 11%
- Middle East & North Africa: 8%
- South Asia: 6%
- Sub-Saharan Africa: 6%
- Eastern & Central Europe: 6%
- Oceania: 3%
- Central Asia & Caucasus: 1%
Don’t assume that fewer contributing bloggers from a given region means GVO doesn’t have much information or news coming from there. For example, journalist Chris Rickleton currently contributes to GVO from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia—where a recent violent anti-government uprising overthrew President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, opening questions about the future of Manas airbase, a crucial part of the supply line for US troops in Afghanistan. Rickleton provides an English-language overview of what Kyrgyz bloggers are saying, in addition to his own reporting and commentary. In effect, he’s a one-man aggregator feeding a larger aggregator.
According to the survey, most GVO bloggers are 25-44 years old, and there’s a pretty even gender split. They’re also highly educated: 85% hold a university degree of some kind, and more than 40% have a post-graduate or doctoral degree. On average, GVO contributors speak three languages. However, even though these contributors may represent an fairly elite class in many nations, most of them do a good job of expressing what’s happening throughout their societies.
If your community has significant immigrant or deployed military populations, or other strong connections abroad—or even if you’re just generally interested in the world beyond the US, or want more context on breaking international news—GVO is a valuable resource for any journalist.
By Amy Gahran, 04/27/10 at 9:04 am
Posted in
Comments (0) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend
July 07, 2010
Here’s further proof why news organizations need a robust mobile strategy now: According to research published today by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Mobile Access 2010) in the past year 40% of US cell phone users accessed the internet from their phones—and more than half of them do so daily. This is a sharp jump: last year, only 25% of cell users reported mobile internet access.
Speaking of strategic considerations, where will your future audience be? A strong majority (65%) of cell users aged 18-29 reported using their phones for internet access. Not far behind, 40% of cell users aged 30-49 also are going online from their phones…
African Americans and Latinos continue to lead the charge on US mobile internet use, says Pew: “Cell phone ownership is higher among African-Americans and Latinos than among whites (87% vs. 80%) and minority cell phone owners take advantage of a much greater range of their phones’ features… In total, 64% of African-Americans access the internet from a laptop or mobile phone, up from the 57% who did so at a similar point in 2009.”
Another point with clear implications for how cell phones can bridge the mobile digital divide: This year, 46% of cell users earning $30,000 or less per year reported accessing the internet from their phones—up from 35% last year. Also, 20% of cell users report that their phone is their sole internet access tool. People with lower incomes tend not to buy fancy smartphones with costly data plans; they tend to use inexpensive feature phones with simple web browsers and limited/no ability to run apps. This is why lean mobile strategies (such as WAP sites, which I discussed yesterday) should be an important part of any news organization’s online strategy.
Besides the mobile web, other internet-based functions are also becoming commonplace among cell phone users: 34% reported using e-mail from their phones this year (up from 25% last year), and 30% reported using mobile instant messaging (from 20% last year). These features, plus podcasting or streaming audio/video, call-in audio, and text/multimedia messaging also can be important parts of a robust mobile news strategy.
By Amy Gahran, 07/07/10 at 12:04 pm
Posted in
Comments (1) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend
July 13, 2010
In the news business, it’s important to know not just where your market is, but where it’s going—and to make sure you’re ready to serve your communities and advertisers at future preferred news destinations.
This means that newspapers should fast-track and hone their smartphone strategies now, according to a recent survey by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation and the New Media Innovation Lab at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University .
They surveyed 1500 US Americans aged 16-20. Some findings from this research…
Many youth are willing to pay a lot for smartphones. More than 60% bought their smartphones themselves, and 58% pay the monthly bill themselves. This is a significant expenditure: According to the report, carrier-subsidized smartphones cost an average of $300 up front.
News apps are not especially popular with young smartphone users. Less than 18% of respondents reported that general news apps were among their five favorite types of smartphone apps. This demographic is more likely to visit a web site focused on news than use a news app—28% reported that news sites are among their five favorite places to get information.
Social media is an important source of mobile news. Over 47% of smartphone users aged 16-20 reported that social media apps are among their favorite apps, and 40% said that social media sites are among their favorite mobile web sites. Many also reported getting via social media various kinds of information that could include news: about their school (35%), town/city (32%), current US/world events (32%), and the economy (21%). Which suggest that social media should be a strong part of any news organization’s mobile strategy.
Young women seem to especially like mobile news. “59% of males and 69% of females had browsed or visited a newspaper web site in the previous 30 days. Asked what device they used, 49% of females said they had used only their smartphones, compared to 27% of males.”
While smartphones are getting considerable media attention, they are far from the biggest part of the mobile media market. The vast majority of mobile phones (about 80% by most statistics) currently in use in the US are not smartphones—so the mobile news potential of feature phones was ignored by this research. The report did note that according to comScore MobiLens, Americans aged 18-24 currently lag behind older users in smartphone adoption.
Furthermore, this report did not specify how the researchers defined what a smartphone is. The line between smart and feature phones is blurring. These days, many inexpensive phones physically resemble smartphones more—with touchscreens, wifi, and sometimes the ability to run simple apps. But their capabilities for sophisticated apps and web browsing often fall far short of true smartphones.
This kind of research can be helpful, but it’s crucial to know the kinds of devices used by most mobile users in your community in order to craft an effective mobile strategy.
By Amy Gahran, 07/13/10 at 3:14 pm
Posted in
Comments (2) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend
August 27, 2010
Today’s typical social media user may be grayer than you’d expect—perhaps as gray as a typical newspaper reader or public radio listener.
According to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, in the past year social networking use among Americans age 50 and up nearly doubled—from 22% to 42%. Half of internet users age 50-64, and a quarter of users 65 and older, now regularly use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr…
“Although e-mail continues to be the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, many users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications—sharing links, photos, videos, news and status updates with a growing network of contacts,” says the report.
The report also notes that older internet users also tend to like online news: “76% of internet users ages 50-64 get news online, and 42% do so on a typical day. Among internet users ages 65 and older, 62% look for news online and 34% do so on a typical day.”
If older adults are a key part of your news organization’s core audience (which is true for most news orgs), consider ways to use social media to deepen and extend your connections with this demographic. In addition to reaching out online to older parts of your community via social networking sites, also consider integrating social media more thoroughly on your web site—and promote and explain your social media efforts more often in print or on the air.
If your news org has been lagging on social media so far, this research could provide even more impetus to get more active in social media. Also, if you’ve assumed social media appeals almost exclusively to younger audiences—think again.
By Amy Gahran, 08/27/10 at 9:13 am
Posted in
Comments (1) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend
RSS Feed
