The way The Vancouver Sun covered a recent survey on the news habits of Canadians is revealing.
The poll conducted by IDC Canada for the Information Technology Association of Canada concluded that the “imminent death of traditional media has been greatly exaggerated”, stressing that “despite our fascination and reliance on digital content, 95 percent of respondents continue to turn to traditional media (newspapers, radio and television) for general news and 82 percent for breaking news.”
The Sun followed the same lead , which is hardly surprising, as it is part of one of Canada’s media conglomerates, CanWest.
The poll, however, could be read in a very different way. The results show that TV is the primary source of news for most Canadians, used by 70%.
But the poll suggests that the Internet is growing in importance, with 42% of respondents using some form of online media for general news, rising to 50% among the younger generation. By comparison, 50% turn to newspapers, around the same percentage who use radio.
One way of interpreting these figures is that the way Canadians learn about the world is changing. As Bernard Courtois, President, ITAC suggested:
65 per cent of Canadian households have high speed Internet, and this high level of adoption is causing a shift in behaviour, as Internet news outlets begin to creep into the media mix
There was an unexplained finding on the level of trust in online news. The survey found that only 11.5 per cent of respondents saying they believe online media is unbiased and 12 per cent believing that it is accurate. This is odd, as the mainstream news outlets also are the dominant online news sources for Canadians.
Filed under: Canada, journalism, newspapers , CanWest, Vancouver Sun
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