Digital environment has become an essential element in how Americans find out about events in your area and issues in the news. Today, nearly as many U.S. adults say they like to get their local news on the internet as approach so from the tv.

Chart showing that an overwhelming most Americans reach least some local news online.

Specifically, when asked which pathways they like for local news – the tv screen set, the internet (most likely through social websites or websites/apps), print or radio – nearly precisely the same part of U.S. adults say they prefer an internet method (37% total, including 23% who favor news websites or apps and 15% who name social media marketing) as say they like television (41%). Far fewer prefer print newspapers (13%) or radio (8%). This close split between TV and internet based pathways tracks closely with how Americans access news more generally.

Beyond digital being the preferred pathway, 89% of american citizens reach least some local news digitally and about four-in-ten (41%) do this often. This reduces to around equal shares who frequently get local news specifically from social media (25%) and internet based news websites or mobile apps (26%).

Whilst Tv producers can be a powerhouse source for local news, they may be still accessed primarily from the analog format of televisions; this is also true of radio news stations. Fully 76% of those people who get news from local TV stations and 81% of people who get news from radio stations primarily head to these providers over the traditional pathway.

But other news providers have a substantial portion of their audience who access them online. Among those who get local news from daily newspapers, for example, 43% primarily access them online while 54% make them mainly within a print format. And up to 50 % of those that get local news from newsletters or listservs (49%) accomplish that primarily online.

Chart showing that few Americans are digital-only or analog-only in terms of local news.

Simultaneously, few Americans are fully analog or fully digital in how they get local news. Instead, most (68%) mix online and offline pathways, for instance, switching on the television set to view their local news station but going on the internet you just read the daily newspaper and neighborhood listserv.

Just 7% of usa citizens indicate that they don’t use anything but digital pathways his or her primary access points. Three times as many U.S. adults (21%) mainly access all providers they get news from with an analog pathway – though this really is still and a clear minority.

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