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TV is still king: New Gallup poll says most Americans get their information from the tube

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As someone who worked in news radio for well over a decade, I'm not really surprised by the latest Gallup poll issued today about where Americans get their news and information.

Television is the main place Americans say they turn to for news about current events (55 percent), leading the Internet at 21 percent. Nine percent say newspapers or other print publications are their main news source, followed by radio with just six percent.

This survey isn't great for those of us in the print world. According to Gallup:

If the current media preferences of young adults are any indicator of the future, the data offer good news for TV, but bad news for print media. Half of adults aged 18 to 29 and half aged 30 to 49 identify television as their main source of news. This is nearly double the rate for the Internet even among these more tech-savvy populations. However, it does differ from older generations who put relatively more emphasis on TV and less on the Internet.

The poll also shows that Republicans are a bit more into TV, Democrats a bit more into print, but members who identify themselves with either political party are still watching a lot more of the boob tube than they are reading online stories or their local paper. Twelve percent of Democrats prefer getting their news first through a newspaper, compared to 8 percent of Independents, and 7 percent of Republicans.

But the vast majority of all three identifiable groups in this survey say that they rely and/or watch television to first get their news; 62 percent of Republicans, 54 percent of Dems, and 52 percent of Indies also list TV tops.

When it comes to brand loyalty there is one network that rises above them all. That would be Fox News, where 20 percent of Republicans versus 6 percent of Independents and 1 percent of Democrats name it as their main source of information. No other television, print, or online news source generates as much loyalty from either Democrats or Independents. The closest is CNN, named by 10 percent of Democrats, 6 percent of Independents, and 4 percent of Republicans.

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