Here’s a bit of encouraging news for broadcast media news rooms to share with their team.
A new poll conducted by Morning Consult and a large cable television news organization finds that some 87% of respondents are satisfied with the coverage of local news in their community.
That finding, from Morning Consult and Spectrum News, is coupled with data that find 83% of respondents believe local news coverage on television — and radio — is “most trustworthy.”
Overall, sentiment that local news provides people with important information about their community, as well as critical national news, was high, with 77% in agreement.
Additionally, 72% of respondents agreed that local news helps enact positive change in their local community, while 63% feel local news holds businesses and government accountable.
The poll was conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of Spectrum Networks from June 17 to July 11. Some 5,000 adults were surveyed in the United States. An additional 7,232 adults were surveyed in 13 different regions — New York City; Upstate New York; Worcester, Mass.; North Carolina; Central Florida; Tampa-St. Petersburg; Ohio; Kentucky; Wisconsin; Dallas; Austin; San Antonio; El Paso; Los Angeles; Maine; Hawaii; and St. Louis — in order to review metrics in those particular markets.
Those markets are home to Spectrum MVPD franchises. And, the locales were sampled and weighted independently of the 5,000 adults and not included in the topline results unless explicitly stated.
Interviews were conducted online and the data are weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race and region.
Results have a margin error of +/- 2 percentage points.
Among the other poll findings, Americans cited television (48%) as the most important source for local news, a blow for the crumbling daily newspaper. Additionally, some 62% of respondents watch local news on television daily.
What about Facebook, Twitter or the like? Just 17% of respondents rank social media as the most important news source, but 40% seek local news daily from news apps.
Of Americans, 9% rank newspapers as the most important source for local news.
“We have long known that investing in local journalism empowers and strengthens communities, and this poll demonstrates the vital role we play in the communities we serve,” said Mike Bair, Executive Vice President of Spectrum Networks.
Among the other takeaways, some 80% of respondents feel satisfied with the choices of news outlets in their area.
In general, people feel more satisfied with their local news coverage because they are more familiar with local anchors in their community, as 77% of respondents said they feel reporters who live in their local community are more connected to relevant local news and information, and 82% feel local news reporters are trusted.
