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Using the media
Friday, 06 October 2006 03:53 | Written by Graham Young
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We're analysing our media survey in two parts because there was so much information there. And it was so rich. I've copied our on-air notes below, and you can download the full word document with tables by clicking here. For me, the most exciting thing we've found so far is that while you use public broadcasters the most and find them the most reliable, the Internet is running third on importance, just below newspapers, but is rated higher than newspapers for reliability. I have a suspicion that this has to do with websites being the centre of social networks, but I'll have a better idea about this when I've crunched the qual. This is an important issue, and there were 1265 or so responses, so it will take me a while to crunch - at least two weeks until the next on-air session. Thanks to those who participated, this work really is at the cutting edge of our understanding of how the media landscape is changing.

On-air notes

  1. 1,265 responses. 45% female, 55% male. Weighted towards older Australians
  2. 49% from Queensland, 22% NSW, 11% Vic, 7% SA, 6% WA, 3% ACT, 1% Tas
  3. Most influential media for elections: Radio 15%, Newspapers 14%, Internet 11%, TV 11%, Social 10%, Paid media 6%. Reflects a decline in both newspapers and TV and the rise of the Internet.
  4. The Internet was the most favoured by the under-thirties, particularly women, and was also very popular with under 40s.
  5. Radio fairly uniformly popular across all age groups, while newspapers were preferred by the 40 to 60 age groups.
  6. Some cross-over between social and Internet and between Newspapers and Internet.
  7. TV has some life yet at least with younger women.
  8. When it comes to frequency for news ABC Radio and TV win hands-down over Newspapers and Internet, which more or less tie. Commercial Radio really bombs.
  9. When it comes to increases in frequency of use for news, newspapers are in mild decline, commercial broadcasters in steep decline, public broadcasters increasing in use and the Internet rocketing away.
  10. For entertainment our respondents most frequently turn to the public broadcasters and then to the Internet.
  11. They don’t perceive an increase in their use of most of these media, apart from the Internet. (This of course can’t be correct, unless they are spending more time consuming media in total than they did before).
  12. When it comes to reliability, they favour the public broadcasters, then the Internet. Newspapers are ranked well-below the Internet, and the commercial broadcasters are seen as being more unreliable than reliable.
  13. Take-out message – Commercial broadcasters are in trouble and the Public Broadcasters are filling the gap at the moment, but the Internet is charging in. Newspapers are essentially stagnant. Younger consumers have moved decisively to the ’net and prefer less “official” sites.
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Comments   

 
0 #21 Comment — Graham Young 2006-10-12 06:00
Dave, your criticisms are reasonable. We can dissect by voting intention if we want, and as an exercise I might do that to see whether there are any significant differences.

I think the importance with this group is that they are "early adopters" and their responses point the direction for what might happen in the future. At the moment, probably most people don't get their news from the Internet, but then, even with this group, there is a wide variation.
 
 
0 #22 Comment — brian 2006-10-19 00:15
The print media is in decline,both in readership and their ability to influence. Clearly Public Radio is more credible and entertaining ie NPR, BBC and ABC. There is a clear message here for Political Parties, you need to connect with people on a more credible and informative basis, rather than TV " door stops" and Print media Headlines.recen t trends in U.S. political campaigns have shown the people power of the Internet. Howard Dean used it brilliantly in 2004 and it wont be long before it becomes the preferred source of political and candidate information in ALL campaigns.My other comment is that Howard has seen the influence of the ABC and has moved to neutralise it, in his recent policy of " balanced " reporting..read less critical comments and presenters! I get my print news via N.Y. Times and L.A. Times on line as well as listening to the BBC and NPR on line and via ABC,s News Radio. I wonder if the Federal Government will attempt to enforce its Media balance on those programmes? The other message is that the Public wonts diversity and intelligent information, uncluttered by bias.