▶ Politicians Rank Last: Gallup reports in its annual “Confidence in Institutions†survey that Americans have the least confidence in Congress out of 16 institutions tested. The military fared best. Congress ranked last, as only 11% surveyed said that they have a “great deal†or “quite a lot†of confidence. This number dropped from 2009, when 17% of voters reported confidence in Congress. Other findings include:
• Newspapers and television news again received near-record low results: just 25% of respondents say that they have a “great deal†or “quite a lot†of confidence in those mediums.
• Some good news: 45% surveyed have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This is up from 43% in 2009. But in the 2010 survey, the media also received one of the worst grades Gallup recorded, as 18% of Americans said they have no confidence in the media at all.
• Despite negative opinion, 51% turn to local TV news daily, and 40% turn to cable news and local newspapers every day.
Source: Gallup
â–¶ Oldsters Up Their Social Mojo: Social networking among users above age 50 increased by nearly 90% in the last year, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project study. Usage among this group nearly doubled from 22% to 42% between April 2009 and May 2010. Other findings include:
• Within the same period, social networking increased by 88% among Internet users between ages 50-64, growing from 25% to 47%. Use among ages 65 and older grew 10% in that period, from 13% to 26%. Social networking among users ages 18-29 had a 13% increase from 76% to 86%.
• Use of social networking sites on a typical day grew from 10% last year to 20%. Thirteen percent of adults 65 and older use these sites on a typical day, increasing from 4% in 2009.
• Of Internet users ages 50 and older, 1 in 10 say they use Twitter or a similar site to share updates about themselves or view updates about others.
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
â–¶ More Online Targets: Internet access in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Russia will increase from around 610 million people to 1.2 billion by 2015, says a Boston Consulting Group study. Other findings of the global online study include:
• Currently only 32% of the potential audience in Brazil and Russia now own a PC, followed by 5% in India and Indonesia. Ownership is predicted to double within the next five years.
• Chinese consumers spend 2.7 hours online at present, 1.7 hours in Russia, 0.93 hours in Brazil, 0.86 hours in Indonesia and 0.52 hours in India. Time spent online is expected to increase substantially by 2015.
• Brazil has the highest membership on social sites at 69%, followed by Indonesia’s 58%. Other featured markets had no more than one-third of Internet users using social networks. PRN
Source: Boston Consulting Group