A friend of mine brought this fascinating little interactive map to my attention, and I think it’s so interesting I wanted to bring it to yours.
Honestly, I’m not smart enough to extrapolate a smart post from this data … but I do think it’s an interesting statement about where Americans get their news, and how regional that is. Not everyone is reading USA Today, for example.
The folks at Bitly got together with Forbes to
produce a data visualization which looks at how 15 media properties [were] being disproportionately consumed online on a state-by-state basis over the month of April [2013]. We had various preconceived notions of which state’s residents are more likely to consume news sites from certain newspapers, televised news, news magazines and online-only news properties.
This article explains what they did, how they did it, and how they then expanded this to real-time coverage. It should be noted (and is, by a Bitly respondent in the comments):
The map doesn’t show the most popular news source in the state, it shows areas of the country that have a higher than average percentage of people interacting with that news source compared to the country as a whole.
Do read the comments, and read that blurb again: it doesn’t show the most popular news source in the state, only areas of the country that have a higher than average percentage of people interacting with that news source compared to the country as a whole
So click around. You can look at the top ten sources in newspapers, TV/radio, magazines, and online only, state by state. Let me know what you think.
Tweet: Where do you get your news? Here’s where your neighbors get theirs.
Tweet: Media consumption in the United States: a real-time map!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”