Searching for News: The Flint water crisis
Many Americans turned to Google to learn about the Flint water crisis. An analysis of aggregated searches over time illustrates how, in today’s digital environment, public interest shifts as a story unfolds.
Methodology
This project – using the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, as a case study model – examines the question of how media coverage of a current issue in the news relates to public interest in the issue and its relevance to their own lives.
Searching for News
Many Americans turned to Google to learn about the Flint water crisis. An analysis of aggregated searches over time illustrates how, in today’s digital environment, public interest shifts as a story unfolds.
How Americans Encounter, Recall and Act Upon Digital News
A unique study of Americans’ online news habits over the course of a week provides a detailed window into how Americans learn about current events in the digital age.
Social, Search and Direct
Direct visitors to 26 top news sites—those who type in the news outlet’s URL or have the address bookmarked—are far more engaged with that news than users who arrive from Facebook or a search engine, according to a new analysis of online traffic data.
