For Tufts students, it seems that the days of watching the evening news with their parents are a thing of a past. According to a recent Pew report, those Americans who primarily get their news from Internet sources are not only generally younger and better-educated, but they are also typically more critical of mainstream news organizations.
Many Internet readers are particularly wary of cable news channels such as Fox News Channel and MSNBC, which they consider more biased than non-cable news reports. A survey report conducted by Pew found that 38 percent of those whose main news source is the Internet have a negative opinion of cable TV news, whereas only 17 percent of those who depend primarily on TV for their news have a negative opinion of cable TV news.
At Tufts, however, students interviewed said that they get their news from the Internet simply because the Internet is more accessible to them than tuning into the evening news every night. Most did not feel that their choice to turn to the Web for their news was based on a distrust of cable news or other news organizations.
Senior Dan Feldman said that he does not watch the news on television, but only because it is inconvenient for him to do so.
"I do Internet or the newspaper [for my news]," Feldman said. "I never watch the news, but I don't think that's a statement of whether or not it's biased."
Likewise, junior Shiri Raphaely gets her news from the Internet or newspapers.
"They are accessible," Raphaely said. "I don't have a TV or time to watch TV."
Though sophomore Sarah Johnson believes that Fox News Channel, the top-rated cable news network, does have a politically conservative bias, she said it is inconvenience that leads her to avoid watching the news on television. Instead, Johnson, like Feldman and Raphaely, peruses Internet sites for news.
"It's just easier to get it online - you can go wherever you want," Johnson said. "You can get whatever kind of news you want. You don't have to listen to everything else like on the news. I'm sort of against Fox because of their conservative bias, but I don't harbor any resentment towards any other news sources. I just don't have time."
Sophomore Fanna Gamal does watch the evening news occasionally, but she tends to watch non-cable channels such as NBC or ABC. Still, these are not her preferred news sources.
"I actually get most of my news over the Internet," Gamal said. "It's more convenient. I listen to my local news broadcast through streamline. I don't really watch cable news as much. When I do watch news, it's not the news stations that are considered more biased, like MSNBC or Fox. But honestly, I've found that they're all basically the same."
