Recently, the Television Bureau of Advertising researched what platforms are effecting Mississippians and how they vote the most. The not-for-profit trade association of America’s local broadcast TV industry, released a proprietary survey of Mississippi voters conducted by Dynata (formerly Research Now SSI), a global expert in online market research data. The voter media usage research in Mississippi reaffirms results seen nationally and across multiple states individually: voters trust and respond to local broadcast TV.
“Results in Mississippi affirm, once again, the potency and efficacy of local broadcast television. Voters continue to view and respond to news on their local broadcast TV stations,” said TVB President and CEO Steve Lanzano. “Over 80 percent of all voters said that they trust news from local broadcast television.”
The research showed by and large voters trust local broadcast live news. 83 percent of Mississippi voters state that they trust local broadcast TV news, more than any other media category. Only 60 percent trust cable, and 37 percent trust social media. This includes 79 percent of Republicans, 91 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Independents, who responded that they trust local broadcast TV news. Social media was the least trusted for all parties.
This latest research was conducted from January 14 to January 31 via an opt-in survey of 1,000 Mississippi respondents. To qualify, respondents needed to be a registered voter and to have been exposed to any of over 20 media yesterday, either traditional or digital.
However, people aren’t only relying on television to get their news. They may use other platforms like national broadcast news, social media, radio or newspapers. Some of which they say are high in the “fake news” risk.
While locally broadcast news still ranks number 1 in trust for Mississippians they say that when finding information on social media they are often the most wary of “fake news” sources.
Sarah Ulmer
