2015 RJI Mobile Media Research Report 2

Majority of smartphone owners say they frequently get news from television and-or printed newspapers

Updated March 9, 2016

Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of U.S. adults who owned smartphones said they got news and information frequently or very frequently from at least one traditional media source — television news or printed newspapers — in the week prior to participating in the latest Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute mobile media poll.

Local television news was the most popular “old” media source with 55 percent of smartphone owners overall saying they frequently or very frequently used this medium for news and information in the past seven days. Network television news ranked second with 49 percent overall and printed local newspapers third with 36 percent overall.

Two-thirds (67 percent) of smartphone owners overall said they frequently or very frequently followed the news. One-third (33 percent) said they had followed news stories frequently or very frequently on their smartphones in the past seven days.

In the same time period, nearly half (49 percent) overall said they had frequently or very frequently interacted with social media networks on their smartphones and about one-quarter (24 percent) overall said they had shared news stories using social media networks. About one-quarter (26 percent) also said they had shopped online frequently or very frequently on their smartphones.  

This survey was conducted for RJI in June 2015 by Ipsos, one of the world’s largest independent market research companies. It included 1,001 adults from all 50 states who owned smartphones.