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October 13, 2004
About This "Readers Speak" Series
Part 1: The latest credibility crisis involving a CBS “60 Minutes” report stains all media; readers suggest ways to solve the problems they see. Also, readers say they get their national election coverage from a wide variety of sources, but most say that coverage has had little or no effect on their decision.
Part 2: Despite the recent surge in interest regarding online Web logs, four of five readers surveyed say they don’t read Web logs, or “blogs.” Those who do read blogs urge caution but suggest the new medium offers great potential as a watchdog of mainstream media.
Part 3: Readers rely on a small number of media sources for coverage of local elections, and are much more trusting of that coverage than of national election coverage. Newspapers still play a vital role.
This Readers Speak survey was sponsored by the Associated Press Managing Editor's National Credibility Roundtables Project through its Reader Interactive initiative. A total of 39 news organizations sent email to 16,575 regular readers, and 2,543 responses were received from 49 states and the District of Columbia, a response rate of 15 percent.
The results are not scientific; those who responded are likely to be among the more wired and interactive readers that newspapers have. They were polled because they had given their email address to their local newspaper, and comments were taken only online.
The National Credibility Roundtables Project is funded through a grant from the Ford Foundation, and is intended to help the media address the credibility crisis that exists with the public. The Reader Interactive initiative, as part of that project, has assisted newsrooms around the country in setting up reader email networks so that editors can be in better touch with readers. On occasion, the newsrooms involved in that initiative work together on a national Readers Speak survey such as this one.
Participating news organizations:
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ)
Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA)
Bristol Herald Courier (Bristol, VA)
Carroll County Times (Westminster, MD)
Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL)
Free Press (Mankato, MN)
Greeley Tribune (Greeley, CO)
Idaho Statesman (Boise, ID)
Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE)
Mason City Globe Gazette (Mason City, IA)
Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, NH)
Newsdesk.org
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY)
Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY)
The Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, CA)
The Beaufort Gazette (Beaufort, SC)
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
The Detroit Free Press (Detroit, MI)
The Forum (Fargo, ND)
The Free Press (Burlington, VT)
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA)
The Herald (Rock Hill, SC)
The Herald (Everett, WA)
The Janesville Gazette (Janesville, WI)
The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)
The Manhattan Mercury (Manhattan, KS)
The McAlester News-Capital and Democrat (McAlester, OK)
The Missoulian (Missoula, MT)
The Newport Daily News (Newport, RI)
The Observer-Reporter (Washington, PA)
The Olympian (Olympia, WA)
The Post-Crescent (Appleton, WI)
The Register Star (Rockford, IL)
The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT)
The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
The Vindicator (Youngstown, OH)
The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, WA)
Village Soup.com (Camden, ME)
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, WY)
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Subscribe READERS SPEAK
Part One: CBS, media and public trust
Part Two: Do Blogs Matter? Part Three: Local political news more trusted
More APME on Newsdesk.org
About APME
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