• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 4, 2003

Seeing is Believing! "Read All About It" Lends Credibility

Maybe it's not a bellweather, but it could be a harbinger of how US TV viewers might behave.

According to an ongoing study conducted by the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS), the winner with the recent proliferation of TV news channels is not TV news but newspapers. Instead of adversely affecting newspaper readership habits, TV news seems to have left readers asking for more. In other words, the more news they see on TV, the greater is the tendency to pick up a newspaper, according to CMS' study on the "Appetizer effect of TV news on newspaper readership".

"TV news is adding to the readership as well as credibility of mainline daily newspapers", says N Bhaskara Rao, chairman, CMS.

The study, a survey of 150 'viewer-readers' in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, has been conducted over the past one year. CMS found that the sample that watched TV news the previous night spent 60 per cent more time in reading newspapers.

The study revealed that TV viewers returned to newspapers to get details as well as to reconfirm the credibility of news on TV. It also said the credibility of mainline newspapers has improved over TV news during the last one year. The study also highlighted that housewives are spending more time with newspapers.

You can find out more here.