A new Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll finds that a significant portion of registered voters still get their news from traditional news sources, particularly local news:
The USC/Times poll found that with a welter of new media alternatives available, there was only one source that a majority of registered voters turned to at least daily: local television news. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed said they watched their local TV news that often. That gives local stations considerably more reach than the second-most-common news source: local newspapers, in both their print and online versions. About 39% of those surveyed said they routinely turned to the local paper.
Although younger voters turn increasingly to nontraditional media sources, they make a distinction about trustworthiness. Among those age 18 to 29, almost 1 in 5 said they got news daily or more often from Comedy Central hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But when asked to rate the trustworthiness of news sources, those young viewers rated the two funny men far lower than such traditional mainstays as local newspapers and local TV.
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