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A study has shown that Americans still prefer to get their news on the war with Iraq from TV broadcasts, despite the growing numbers of people using the web for up-to-date information.

The Pew Report found that internet news audiences have grown significantly since the September 11th attacks, but the majority of Americans are still getting their news from television.

It said: "More than three-quarters of online Americans (77 per cent) have used the internet in connection with the war in Iraq. They are going online to get information about the war, to learn and share differing opinions about the conflict, to send and receive emails where they ponder events, express their views and offer prayers. In addition, a smaller portion of internet users are using email to mobilise others and gain support for their views about the conflict."

However, the report also noted that the overwhelming majority of internet users are switching on their TVs to get most of their war news. "The internet is last on the list of ways that online Americans are getting most of their news," it said.

"Still, 17 per cent of online Americans say their principal source of information about the war is the Internet and that number is considerably higher than when we asked questions about how Americans were getting their news immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks."

Only four per cent of those surveyed are using blogs to get war news, and the research claims the figure is not significant enough to enable a proper critique of weblogs.

Sources:
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/reports.asp?Report=87&Section=ReportLevel2&Field=Level2ID&ID=662
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=87
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1049732201.php

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iraq | internet users | internet news audiences |

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