Adapting to America's Changing Media Habits

by Gene Rose

This week seperate reports were released that said more people are going to the Internet for political news and that printed newspaper circulation continues to fall.

The question that all legislatures, especially ones with public information offices, should consider is, "are we adapting to a sea change in public media habits?" While the data increasingly shows citizens gravitating to the Web for news and information, there still is a premium in legislatures on what is printed in the morning newspapers.

The Associated Press-AOL study found about four in 10 under the age of 50 search the Web for political news. Likely voters tend to use the Internet even more. The good news for news organizations is that seven out of 10 said media political sites are the most trustworthy.

For newspapers, Editor & Publisher said this was the fourth consecutive semi-annual report showing a severe drop in newspaper daily circulation, with only three of the nation's top 25 newspapers showing any circulation gain at all. Monitoring the popular journalism site Romenesko shows significant hand-wringing in the newspaper industry on where journalism is headed. Staff reductions and budget cuts are the norm rather than the exception and journalists are openly worried about the changes in their profession.

The legislative culture, though, still loves the printed word. Newspapers, particularly the metropolitan ones, carry significant weight when it comes to public policy discussions.

At a session during the recent annual professional development seminar for state legislative information and communication staff, most public information officers admitted that most of their work focused on print media related activities. If the goal is to get information to the most people and to communicate with people at the grassroots level, then strategies and resources may need to be re-evaluated to respond to the public's shift in media habits.