Poll: Internet Grows As Primary News Source

Television remains the main source of national and international news for most Americans, but it is steadily losing its lead over the Internet, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted Dec. 1-5.

The trend toward the Internet is particularly marked among 18-to-29 year-olds who now favor it over television to learn what's going on in the country and the world. Sixty-six percent of those surveyed said they get their dose of news from television compared to 41 percent who said they count on the Internet.

While the number of those using the Internet for most of their news has not changed dramatically in the last two years, there has been a big shift since 2007, when 74 percent went to TV for their news and 24 percent turned mainly to the Internet.

 It's no surprise, given the last few years of bleak stories about the print media, that newspapers come in third, with 31 percent getting most of their news from them. The biggest decline in the numbers of people who cite newspapers as their main source was between 2003 and 2005, but the percentage continues to drop slowly but steadily.

Radio as a source of news was cited by 16 percent. (Figures add to more than 100 percent because respondents could volunteer up to two main sources.)

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