A new study from the Pew Research Center For The People and the Press notes that while TV is still the primary news source for a majority of Americans, it continues to decline overall. More concerning for TV is that younger people aren’t tuning in to begin with.
Every traditional news outlet, including TV, radio and newspapers, have been on the decline, according to the survey, while online news rises. Among young people however the trends look very different. While a majority of Americans 30 and over get news from TV, only around a third of those under 30 do (see graph below).
The survey also looks at cable news viewing habits, and finds that Fox News has declined slightly, CNN has declined greatly, and MSNBC has stayed flat. Regular readers may note that the poll still has CNN having more viewers than MSNBC, which doesn’t seem to gibe with the cable news ratings. That is true, but is likely due to the fact that CNN has more casual viewers (measured by Nielsen as “cume”), who tune in for a few minutes maybe once or twice a week, rather than FNC and MSNBC, who have more loyal and regular viewers.