More on the Pew study

Instead of analyzing a single statistic in the survey, I'm going to provide several salient points...

• Across all age groups, people say they like having a lot of information at their fingertips. Less than a third of respondents in each age group said they felt bombarded, with the highest percent in the 50+ age group (32 percent). In an age where more and more news is offered on the Web, this stat can only encourage online journalism. No matter how much information a newspaper can cram into its pages, the Web will always have more space for news -- cyberspace has no back page.
• Not surprisingly, liberals feel they are more represented in the media than conservatives. 71 percent of liberal democrats feel the media represents their interests, while only 56 percent of conservative republicans feel the same. Conservative cries of a "liberal media bias" have become as common as partisan bickering in recent years. Interestingly, 66 percent of those with a college degree feel their interests are represented, as opposed to 44 percent of those with just a high school education. This makes sense, because members of the media usually have passed through higher education. But the stat is low for both conservatives and less educated people. Coincidence? I think not.
• It did surprise me, however, that conservatives far outnumber liberals in the audience ideology profile. 36 percent of the audience identifies itself as conservative, as opposed to 35 percent moderate and 21 percent liberal. Part of me believes that this trend towards the center-right simply reflects a national trend, as the ideology of the country as a whole has swung to the right ever since the rise of the Moral Majority and the Reagan years. If that is the case, then it may explain why conservatives feel underrepresented in the media -- they just watch more. But it could also be that liberals are simply less eager to label themselves "liberals" and would rather place themselves in the "moderate" bracket.
• Finally, it appears that despite the rise in personal devices like cell phones and iPods, the growth of Blackberries has remained surprisingly stagnant. Over the last two years, Blackberry and Palm Pilots has actually declined, from 14 percent in 2004 to 12 percent in 2006. More and more, Americans are looking to get their news personalized and on the go (hence the rise in Internet access on cell phones). Why, then, is there not a rise in the Blackberry, which more than any of the new technologies allows people to personalize the news they receive, as well as get it wherever (and whenever) they want? For example, I was at the Northwestern baseball game on Sunday, and I wanted to know the score of the Chicago Cubs-Chicago White Sox game. Luckily for me, the man sitting in front of me had a Blackberry, and he was able to tell me the score within seconds. With people clamoring for news WHEN they want it, WHERE they want it, HOW they want it, you would think they would be smart enough to snap up some Blackberries.