Reading Eagle is most likely source of local news, survey shows

Most people in Berks County get their local news from the Reading Eagle newspaper, WFMZ television station, and Berks Community Television’s website – bctv.org, according to recent surveys.

And initial findings show that the Latino community is underserved by some of Berks County’s traditional news outlets.

Heidi Williamson of the Berks County Community Foundation was kind enough to write a summary of the findings of the information-needs assessments, funded by the Knight Foundation.

“The questions focused on the ability to access specific pieces of information that people need to function in a democracy. It did not dig into the deeper social issues surrounding whether or not people are actually accessing community information, or if there are stories that are going unreported. More research would need to be done to determine the answers to those questions.

“Here’s a summary of the findings:

“Overall Berks County residents can find the information they need to perform basic tasks in Berks County, like sign up for an absentee ballot, renew their driver’s license, find a place to go this weekend, or contact their local officials.

“People rely heavily on Google to find information about local issues. When they search for local news, they’re most likely to find it at the Reading Eagle website. WFMZ and bctv.org were the next most-often sited information sources. For government or emergency information people were most likely to end up at the county’s website or the city’s website.

“For weather, arts, and entertainment, people were most likely to go directly to the website of an organization they were already familiar with, like the Reading Public Museum, and search for events. There are several community calendars, but none appear to have caught on as the go-to place for people to find out what’s happening locally.

“When it comes to sharing their own information, respondents were most likely to use Facebook as a means to reach the most people the fastest. If they wanted to sell something, they were most likely to go to Craig’s List’s Reading page.

“Although surveys were sent to people in each geographic area of the county, respondents skewed suburban and educated.

“Shortly before we did the scan, two communication professors from Albright conducted a scan based on the same format from the Knight Foundation, however they focused on the Latino community.

“While they were still in the process of analyzing their research, the initial findings showed that the Latino community is underserved by some of Berks County’s traditional news outlets, and turn to WXAC, which is a Spanish-language radio station at Albright, WFMZ’s Spanish edition, and a bilingual magazine called El Palo for news.

“Although I hadn’t heard of El Palo before we did the scan, the magazine is now housed in the Jumpstart Incubator on the top floor of our building. … It’s primarily a venue for advertisers, but there are always good stories, too.”