The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conducted a survey earlier this week (Sept. 6-7) that reveals some interesting facts about how Americans are learning about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Here is an excerpt from their summary of what 1,000 Americans reported:
Television, and cable news channels in particular, are the main sources of news for most Americans during a crisis, and that was again the case for Hurricane Katrina ... In this instance, CNN made the greatest gains. In June, 18 percent of Americans cited CNN as a source of most of their news about national and international issues. Following Katrina, 31 percent say CNN is a main source of news. The Fox News Channel and MSNBC also saw sizable, though smaller, audience gains from Katrina.
Television's larger audience came at the expense of newspapers, the Internet and radio. While still a primary source of information for many Americans on the disaster, all three are cited less frequently in this situation than under normal circumstances ...
Overall, two-thirds give news organizations excellent (28 percent) or good (37 percent) ratings for their coverage of the impact of Katrina. This is considerably more favorable than the public's ratings a year ago for press coverage of the presidential election campaign. Current evaluations of coverage are in line with views of other major recent events, though considerably lower than the overwhelmingly positive media ratings following 9/11 (56 percent excellent, 33 percent good).
All in all, most (62 percent) say the amount of coverage given to Katrina's aftermath is appropriate, while less than a quarter (21 percent) say there has been too much. There is a considerable partisan divide on this, however Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say there has been too much coverage of the impact of Katrina (27 percent vs. 15 percent of Democrats) ...
Previous Pew surveys have shown the Fox News audience to be highly supportive of the president. This remains the case today, with Fox viewers reacting far more favorably to the president's handling of the disaster than those who cite other outlets as their major source of news on the hurricane.
In addition, a plurality of Fox News viewers (42 percent) say that people who took things from businesses and homes in New Orleans were mostly criminals taking advantage of the situation. The balance of opinion among those who rely on other outlets -- CNN, network news, newspapers and the Internet -- is that people who stole were mostly ordinary people trying to survive in an emergency.
You can read the summary here. You can read the complete report here (PDF).
