10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Lella [.] Mazzoli [@uniurb.it], Fabio [.] Giglietto [@uniurb.it]

Department of Communication Studies| LaRiCA | Università di Urbino Carlo Bo

UNDERSTANDING THE ONLINE NEWS CONSUMER. A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN ITALY AND UNITED STATES

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Summary

• Survey background and methodology

• Main findings:

– The Basics (Internet Use, Social Network);

– The New Information Ecology;

– Online News Consumption;

– Participatory News Consumer.

• Conclusions

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Survey background & methodology

Sou

rce

ISTA

T

58

32 34

37 40

44 49

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

TV Radio Newspapers Books Internet

Percentage of Italians 6+ who watch television, listen to radio, use the Internet and 11+ who read newspapers and books

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Survey background & methodology

• Italian data (University of Urbino)

– Findings based on nationally representative telephone surveys of Italian adults 18+ (N=1009);

– Interviews conducted between 10th December 2010 and 21th December 2010;

• US data (Pew Internet Project)

– Findings based on nationally representative telephone surveys of US adults 18+ (N=2259);

– Interviews conducted between 28th December 2009 and 19 January 2010;

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The Basics Who’s online? The internet by age groups

94%

76%

50%

20%

90% 84%

70%

40%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

18-29 30-49 50-64 65+

Italy US

58% 75%

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The Basics

Percentage of Online Adults Who Use Social Media (SNS)

83%

62%

45%

37%

82%

64%

47%

28%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

18-29 30-49 50-64 65+

Italy US

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The «New» Information Ecology Adults who get news/info from multiple platforms on a typical day

US Italy

Platforms: Local/National TV, Radio Internet, Local/NationalNewspapers

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The «New» Information Ecology Menu of choice for news on typical day

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Local TV News National TVNews

Print nationalnewspapers

Print localnewspapers

Radio

Italy US

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The «New» Information Ecology Adults who use the internet to get news/info

US Italy

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The «New» Information Ecology

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

18-29 30-49 50-64 65+

Italy US

The young are least likely to follow the news all or most of the time

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

38%

59%

3%

Offline Only

Online & Offline

Online only

The Online News Consumer

49%

50%

1%

US Italy

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The Online News Consumer

US Italy

56%

46%

38%

38%

30%

18%

Portal sites

TV news org site

Special topic site

Newspaper site

Indiv or Org on SNS

International News Org site

61%

53%

32%

21%

21%

19%

Most Popular Online News Sources

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The Online News Consumer

US Italy Most Popular Online News Topics

80%

76%

72%

71%

58%

52%

41%

81%

73%

66%

64%

60%

58%

52%

Weather

National events

Health/Medicine

Business & Finance

Science & Technologies

Developments in your state/region

Sports

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The Online News Consumer How many websites, if any, do you routinely rely on for news and

information?

63% 57%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

one two to five six to ten 10+

Italy US

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

The Online News Consumer Adults who have a favorite online news source

US Italy

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Participatory News Consumer Personal (1/2)

(Internet users who customized their home page to include news and information of particulat interest to them) US Italy

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Participatory News Consumer Personal (2/2)

(Internet users who say that being able to customize content is something they look for in an online news site)

US Italy

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Participatory News Consumer Social

(Internet users who get news and information through email or posts on social networking sites few times a week or more often)

US Italy

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Participatory News Consumer Participatory

(internet users who contributed to the creation of news, commented on it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter)

US Italy

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Conclusions

• Italian and American online news consumers seems to share common usage and preference patterns;

• It is reasonable to expect a strong impact on the Italian news ecology (and politics?) in the next few years;

• The study suggest therefore the need for a permanent observatory on online news consumption in Italy.

10th Conference of the European Sociological Association RN18 - Politics and Media Politics in Europe

8th September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Useful links

• Full report and survey questions for Italian data (in Italian);

• Full report and survey questions for US data;

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