A joint study: The State of the Media 2005, shows some interesting trends in US media.
The study looked at newspapers, magazines, network television, cable television, local television, the internet, radio, ethnic press and alternative media.

If you read a summary of the study by Reuters, the coverage of the presidental election is the headline.
Reuters notes the increase in readership for internet news. According to the study 32 million Americans used internet news sites, including blogs. That is an increase of 58%. 32 million readers is about 10% of the US population.

Democrat/Republican political coverage are not the key or original findings.
The Blog Herald looked at the nine categories and the six areas studied in each: audience, economics, ownership, newsroom investment, and public attitudes.

The bottom line according to project director Tom Rosenstiel:

“In effect, Americans are shifting from being consumers of news to pro-active partners in creating their own personalized news account each day, and traditional journalism is only part of that mix,” said Project Director Tom Rosenstiel. “This amounts to a new kind American citizenship with more responsibilities for the consumer.”

1. Audiences are not splitting along ideological lines although some broadcast media is. (radio and cable)

2. The internet, alternative weeklies, and ethnic press are the only media showing audience growth.

3. Newspapers showed a 20% profit rate, but experienced job cutbacks and continued economic bleeding.

4. Cable news had more opinion, but less transparency and hard content than networks.

5. Fox News had opinions inserted in 7 out of 10 stories, and used more sources and transparency about those sources. CNN showed opinion in 1 out of 10 stories while MSNBC was 1 in 4.

6. Internet news sites are experiencing job cut backs and are using a pay as you go model.

7. News is not taking advantage of internet technology as much as expected.
Only 1/3 of sites used video or source links on lead stories.

8. The Networks face the biggest changes since the 1980’s with changes in on-air personnel, and the drive for parent company profitability.

9. Evening TV news viewing continues to decline, and while morning news audiences remain about the same, the morning time slot is becoming the financial engine. However morning news shows only contain 20 minutes of significant news events.

“The news is moving from being an organized, prepared lecture to a free-flowing conversation, with all the advantages and disadvantages that implies,” said Mr. Rosenstiel. “The process is more open, but, paradoxically, it is also more prone to manipulation by those who want to shape public opinion. The cases of the government hiring commentators and creating faux web sites are part of this phenomenon.”

Kudos to Duncan Riley for an excellent breakdown.
The full study can be found here.

Information on internet use in the US and elsewhere

On a typical day at the end of 2004, some 70 million American adults logged onto the Internet to use email, get news, access government information, check out health and medical information, participate in auctions, book travel reservations, research their genealogy, gamble, seek out romantic partners, and engage in countless other activities. That represents a 37 percent increase from the 51 million Americans who were online on an average day in 2000 when the Pew Internet & American Life Project began its study of online life.

source Pew Internet