Which sources of news would you choose if you could only have three?
If I had to pick from the list I prepared for YouGov’s First Verdict panel I would have chosen a national newspaper, Twitter and a search engine. In two of those choices I’m in touch with US citizens but it seems that my enthusiasm for Twitter is not so widely shared. In fact it is shared by a relatively small minority. Only 9% would choose the economically-troubled social media network as one of their top three sources of news. Podcasts at 7% are almost as popular. The finding reminded me of UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s observation that “Britain and Twitter are not the same thing”. While journalists like myself may spend a lot of time sending and reading Tweets we are not necessarily immersing ourselves in a representative understanding of the whole public.
The graph below confirms that getting to the top of search engine results (“Search Engine optimisation” as it is called) is the bullseye if you want to reach the American public. A close second is reaching people via cable news channels like Fox News and CNN. And the, third, is via a national newspaper like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.
Trevor Noah may be struggling to fill Jon Stewart’s large shoes but satirical news shows like Comedy Central’s Daily Show presented by the South African TV host are still a top three news choice for 20% of our panel.
‘I’m personally convinced that our civilisation is approaching its end,’ wrote the British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge in 1980. ‘I think of St Augustine when, in AD 410, the news was brought to him in Carthage that Rome had been sacked by the Barbarians.’ Jim Callaghan was equally gloomy. In 1974, he remarked: ‘When I am […]
Josiah Quincy Jr., who was the mayor of Boston in the middle of the nineteenth century, wrote in his Last Will and Testament that his son should read ‘John Locke’s works, – Lord Bacon’s works, – Gordon’s Tacitus, – and Cato’s Letters. May the spirit of liberty rest upon him!’ Indeed, there is nothing closer […]
Spare a thought for Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, heading the US negotiating team, as they met with Qatari Emir Al Thani this week to discuss the ‘progress of the negotiations’ between the US and the Iranian regime in the Qatari capital, Doha. While the venue for the talks has shifted from Pakistan to Switzerland […]
