The FINANCIAL — Americans are inundated with news. It reaches us 24/7. It's on our televisions, our computers, our phones. But do Americans care? Where are Americans most interested in news, and how do they prefer to keep up with it?
Americans in Boston are more likely than those in any of America's other top ten markets to describe themselves as "news junkies" (with 24% so describing themselves, vs. a 10-market average of 16%); residents of the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, are second most likely to indicate this (21%), while Americans in the Los Angeles (12%) and Atlanta (13%) markets are least likely to show this level of news interest, according to a study utilizing Harris Interactive's new Harris Poll Major Market Query (MMQ) omnibus platform, the answers to both these questions differ, market by market.
These are among the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,036 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older and living in the top 10 American markets by population (roughly 200 per market), surveyed online between August 21 and 27, 2013 by Harris Interactive. The study utilized the MMQ platform, an omnibus survey offering a sample of the 10 top major metropolitan areas of the United States.
Looking at the other end of the spectrum, Los Angelenos are the group most likely to indicate that they are not really interested in the news (25%), while those in the NYC Metro market are least likely to indicate this (8%), indicating that they are the group most likely to be at least moderately interested in the news, according to the study.
Although TV is the preferred news mode when observing the 10-city average (with 45% selecting it as their preferred way to get the news), online (40% for combined computer, tablet and mobile device preference) is hot on its heels overall and ahead of TV in many markets. Preference for news in print also varies greatly by market (highest in NYC, D.C and Boston, lowest in Houston and Atlanta), though it consistently falls behind TV and online.
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