News and the Internet

Internet news access and audience

• Reading news stories online (as opposed to watching news broadcasts) is the most common way of accessing news through the internet (54%)

• 20% of those who access the internet for news watch TV news online

• The internet has allowed interactivity in a way that TV news cannot – people can search for specific stories; comment on them; share clips and stories; listen to radio news; post their own news-related clips/comments/articles; listen to/watch news podcasts; subscribe to personalised news information; use a news ticker/rolling news across the screen; receive email alerts or notification of news; watch clips; read and/or blog/post news on social network sites – and, of course, these features can be accessed anywhere from handheld devices rather than just sitting in front of a computer.

Internet news access and audience

• Of the various website/app sources, Twitter is rated the highest by its users for offering a range of opinions but only a minority of its users rate it for accuracy or impartiality. Not surprisingly the BBC website or app is well-rated fairly solidly by its users for importance, accuracy, trustworthiness, impartiality, and for offering a range of opinions.

Internet news access and audience

• Facebook is rated highly for importance and a range of opinions, but considerably less so for all the other factors.

• Sky News website and app is also well-rated fairly solidly across all features – as are Yahoo News and Google News.

• The key to this is that it details the response of people who USE these sources – it’s not the response of people who don’t use them.