Op-Ed: Misleading political TV ads are filling up California’s ‘news deserts’ and making news deserts more news deserts
It’s easy to find stories to watch on Facebook or Twitter, but is it right for all Californians to watch TV ads?
As the Golden State continues to be inundated with political advertising, one of California’s biggest concerns is that campaigns are essentially taking free TV air time.
In fact, a new report from the Pew Research Center finds Americans get only about eight minutes each day out of their day to interact with information on the internet. (The report is based on an analysis of data from the Pew Research Center’s Digital Journalism Project, which includes about 3,500 Americans).
Pew’s report, “Finding the Time: How Americans Spend Their Day on the Internet and Social Media,” also found that about two-thirds of the time spent by time spent on the web is consumed by Facebook and Google, less than Twitter and Instagram. And the largest share of web use is by mobile devices, with cellphones being used three times more than tablets and PCs combined.
“At every point between one and two percent of the daily time spent online is spent on social media — more than twice as much as the time spent on television or print,” Pew researcher Adam Grant said in a news release about the report. “Mobile devices have become a key place to consume news and information — and to use social media.”
Pew’s analysis of internet use by age group, gender and race found that young people are generally more digital than older users, with young girls spending more time on social media than young men.
In fact, according to Pew’s analysis of Time Use by Mobile Devices for the United States, people in their 30s use mobile devices, including tablets, laptop/desktops and smartphones, more than those in their older age group.
But it’s not just young people who often use mobile devices. “About two-thirds of the daily time spent on social media is spent on mobile devices by people ages 18 to 39, while just 8% of the daily time spent on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or Snapchat is spent by this age group,” Pew notes.
The report found that people in their 30s use
