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Natural Awakenings National

Media Impact: Where Americans Get Their News

Television remains the most popular source of news, and nearly one-third of Americans under the age of 40 see satirical news-oriented television programs like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart replacing traditional news outlets, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey.

Among adults of all ages, 39 percent believe such programs are making Americans more informed about news events; 21 percent believe they make people less informed. Meanwhile, the survey found that 70 percent of responding adults claim such programs are not influential in shaping their own political opinions.

In an earlier survey, the researchers found that most young readers also are rejecting both their local daily newspaper’s print and website editions as sources of information. Most of the 52 percent of American adults who routinely use the Internet find online reporting comparable to that in their local newspaper, although fewer than half of them use the Internet as a daily news source. Overall, a majority of voters believe the Internet has had a positive impact on journalism.

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