Nearly 2/3rd Think Mainstream Media is Out of Touch

This isn't that big of a surprise:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe traditional journalism is out of touch, and nearly half are turning to the Internet to get their news, according to a new survey.

While most people think journalism is important to the quality of life, 64 percent are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism in their communities, a We Media/Zogby Interactive online poll showed.

“That’s a really encouraging reflection of people who care A) about journalism and B) understand that it makes a difference to their lives,” said Andrew Nachison, of iFOCOS, a Virginia-based think tank which organized a forum in Miami where the findings were presented.

Nearly half of the 1,979 people who responded to the survey said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, up from 40 percent just a year ago. Less than one third use television to get their news, while 11 percent turn to radio and 10 percent to newspapers.

Newspaper subscriptions are way down (just ask the NY Times). I used to take daily paper, cut that back to weekends only, and probably haven't even read that in months. We usually end up throwing most of them away, though my wife will sometimes dig through the Sunday coupons.

Whereas the paper was once quick form of new, now anything that takes more than a few minutes to get to you is terribly old. Thus the rise of internet news sites.

Some papers, like the aforementioned Times, still think they can control debate in this country by whatever they choose to put on their front page. Even they are beginning to learn that it's no longer that way. Look how quickly their McCain story was dismantled on the internet. They got creamed, and rightly so.