Online News vs. Traditional Media: Students' News Acquisition Preferences. AIR 1999 Annual Forum Paper.

This study at Tufts University (Massachusetts) evaluated College NewsLink, a web-based newsclipping service, as part of a larger study to assess student preferences regarding the acquisition of current events information. The methodology was multi-pronged: first, faculty were surveyed concerning their familiarity with web-based products; second, students in classes in which NewsLink was incorporated were surveyed; third, faculty who used NewsLink in their courses were interviewed; and fourth, specific questions were designed and incorporated into the 1998 graduating senior survey. Overall, students who used NewsLink (and Lexis-Nexis) were generally satisfied with these online services, their ease of access, and ability to find pertinent articles. However, only 46 percent of students reported using Lexis-Nexis more than once during the semester and only 37.4 percent reported using NewsLink that often. The students appeared to rely primarily (79.3 percent) on television and secondarily (63 percent) on newspapers for their news information. Additional findings indicated that faculty were concerned about the organization and categorization of subject matter within NewsLink and generally preferred Lexis-Nexis. (DB)