A study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism exploring the news ecosystem in Baltimore suggests that while the news landscape has rapidly expanded, most of what the public learns is still overwhelmingly driven by traditional media—particularly newspapers.
The study examined all the outlets that produced local news in the city for one week, surveyed their output and then did a closer examination of six major narratives during the week. Additional findings:
• 95% of stories came from traditional media—most of them newspapers. Those stories tended to set the narrative agenda for most other media outlets;
• Eight out of 10 stories studied simply repeated or repackaged previously published information;
• Among the six major news threads studied in depth—which included stories about budgets, crime and the sale of a local theater—fully 83% of stories were essentially repetitive, conveying no new information. Of the 17% that did contain new information, nearly all came from traditional media either in their legacy platforms or in new digital ones; and,
• Local papers offer fewer stories than ever before. In 2009, for instance, the Baltimore Sun produced 32% fewer stories on any subject than it did in 1999, and 73% fewer stories than in 1991, when the company still published an evening and morning paper with competing newsrooms.
Source: Pew Research Center