Investigators in the U.S. phoned 2,251 households in January 2011 to get a handle on the importance of local news for a report released two days ago by the Pew Research Center\u2019s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project.<\/p>\n
Two quotes stand out for me:<\/p>\n
Nearly three quarters (72%) of adults are quite attached to following local news and information, and local newspapers are by far the source they rely on for much of the local information they need <\/strong>[my emphasis] . In fact, local news enthusiasts are substantially more wedded to their local newspapers than others.\u00a0 They are much more likely than others to say that if their local newspaper vanished, it would have a major impact on their ability to get the local information they want. \u00a0This is especially true of local news followers age 40 and older, who differ from younger local news enthusiasts in some key ways.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
and<\/p>\n
Among all adults, the most closely followed local topics are weather, breaking news, politics and crime<\/strong>, [my emphasis] all followed by a solid majority of two thirds or more. Slightly less popular topics but still with a fairly good following of about half or more are arts and culture, local businesses, schools and education, community and neighborhood events, restaurants, taxes and traffic. Fewer survey respondents follow local news about housing, local government activity, job openings, social services, or zoning. Roughly four in 10 adults or fewer follow these local topics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For a copy of the study, refer to: http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/Reports\/2012\/Local-news-enthusiasts\/Summary-of-Findings.aspx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Investigators in the U.S. phoned 2,251 households in January 2011 to get a handle on the importance of local news for a report released two days ago by the Pew Research Center\u2019s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project. Two quotes stand out for me: Nearly three quarters (72%) of adults […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[46,47,43,48,44,45,49],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-communications","category-journalism","tag-housing","tag-local-government","tag-restaurants","tag-social-services","tag-taxes","tag-traffic","tag-zoning","post_format-post-format-quote","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2buQs-209","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16836,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/is-print-journalism-ailing\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":0},"title":"Is Print Journalism Ailing?","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"January 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, the Toronto Star posted an article claiming that the federal government will announce a $50 million program to promote local journalism in its budget Tuesday. This could be good or bad, depending on the criteria for the program. Presumably, the program is in response to John Honderich's excellent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16580,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-beach\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":1},"title":"Verdun beach location coming soon","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"June 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"At the June borough meeting in Verdun, Mayor Jean-Francois Parenteau promised to announce the location of the proposed beach soon. 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John Symon*, the Green Party candidate for Marquette and a colleague in the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) was the first one to respond to my questions.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics That Matter"","block_context":{"text":"Politics That Matter","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/cultural-identity\/politics-that-matter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/JohnSimon-243x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20569,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/eating-local-really-easy-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":3},"title":"Eating Local Really Easy Now","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"July 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Late July, early August begins a three-month local eating extravaganza. This week, the fall strawberries, cucumbers and ground-grown tomatoes (as opposed to the good greenhouse ones I've been enjoying up to now) get underway. Zucchinis have already been prevalent for the last two weeks, and one of the farmers even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gluten Free Living"","block_context":{"text":"Gluten Free Living","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/seasonal-living\/gluten-free-living\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/20190424_204815-scaled-e1595863389128.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/20190424_204815-scaled-e1595863389128.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/20190424_204815-scaled-e1595863389128.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/20190424_204815-scaled-e1595863389128.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17362,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/social-worker-runs-help-locals-increase-minimum-wage\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":4},"title":"Social Worker Runs to Help Locals and Increase Minimum Wage","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"December 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I interviewed\u00a0V\u00e9ronique Martineau, the candidate in Verdun for Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire. During our conversation, she spoke about the importance of transparency, making sure that MPPs spend their discretionary funds to help locals and her plans to campaign to raise the minimum wage no matter what happens Monday. Martineau Listen to it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics That Matter"","block_context":{"text":"Politics That Matter","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/cultural-identity\/politics-that-matter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/QS-Partielle-VERO-1.jpg?fit=808%2C917&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/QS-Partielle-VERO-1.jpg?fit=808%2C917&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/QS-Partielle-VERO-1.jpg?fit=808%2C917&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/QS-Partielle-VERO-1.jpg?fit=808%2C917&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15645,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/robert-poeti\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":5},"title":"Robert Poeti Re-elected in Marguerite-Bourgeoys","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"April 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Poeti, a former police officer of the\u00a0S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec who has been representing the\u00a0Marguerite-Bourgeoys\u00a0riding since\u00a02012 has been re-elected with more than 25,000 votes, which represents 70% of the vote. My dear LaSalle electors, thank you for having confidence in me again,\u201d he wrote on his Twitter feed later Monday\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Poeti","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Poeti-273x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}