Traditional media still gain consumers’ trust.

A recently released study by Lexis-Nexis — a provider of searchable databases of news and information — finds that during major national events, consumers turn first to TV, radio and print.

According to the study, half of the respondents said they would use network TV during a news event and 42% would turn on the radio. One-quarter would visit a Web site and 6% would visit some form of online user-generated content such as a blog or chat group.

The study will be good news to the companies and traditional media outlets whose content appears on Lexis-Nexis’ various databases. But the leading question is whether people will still trust and use traditional media for everyday news or for their latest fix on celebrity gossip.

Here, the Lexis-Nexis study is somewhat less positive. Emerging news sources (defined in the survey as “citizen journalists, pundits and organizations who create alternative or Internet-only publications, blogs and podcasts, often with a personal or particular point of view”) are expected to gain in importance.

“In the future, more than half (52%) of the consumers surveyed anticipate they will continue to mostly trust and rely on traditional news sources,” Lexis-Nexis reported. “However, more than a third (35%) expect they will trust and rely on both emerging news and traditional news in the future, and more than one in ten (13%) anticipate they will trust and rely mostly on emerging media.”

In addition, Lexis-Nexis found that Internet blogs, user groups and chat rooms were the second most trusted source of information about entertainment news, following traditional lifestyle media.

This anticipated rise in emerging media use mirrors a lessening interest in traditional newspapers among younger adults. According to 2006 research by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 29% of those ages 18 to 29 read a print or online version of a newspaper the day before they were surveyed, vs. 50% of those ages 50 to 64 and 58% of those 65 and older.

However, other studies found that local and network TV news is still a positive source of information on current events for young people. Among those ages 18 to 24, local TV news ranks first in a list of current events sources used most often, according to a 2006 study by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg. Blogs and the Internet were used often by 12% of those ages 18 to 20 and 11% of those ages 21 to 24.

Among people ages 12 to 17 who were surveyed by the Times and Bloomberg, local TV news has somewhat less appeal, but it is still a strongly used source of current events information. The Internet and blogs had roughly the same usage rate among those ages 15 to 17 as for the young adults.

Courtesy of http://www.emarketer.com