The survey of news consumers on the South and West sides of Chicago, conducted online from Oct. 15 to Dec. 28, 2021, measured the opinions of 820 adults who completed a questionnaire they received by email.
Qualtrics, a national market research company, conducted the survey on behalf of the Medill Metro Media Lab at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Project Manager Sam Cholke oversaw the survey. Providing logistical support was Medill Senior Associate Dean and Professor Tim Franklin, the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, who leads the Medill Local News Initiative.
Qualtrics randomly selected people residing in 16 Chicago zip codes and invited those who consumed news at least once a month to participate in the survey.
Most of the 820 who completed the survey were heavy news consumers: More than three-fourths checked the news at least once a day. Smart phones were their No. 1 means of accessing news.
Compared with the population of Chicago overall, the respondents were more likely to be young, Black, female and lower income, and less likely to hold bachelor’s degrees.
More than half of the respondents were between the ages of 18 and 34, while just 10.6% were over 55.
Almost 60% were Black, 17.7% Hispanic and 16.2% White, with the balance identifying as other races or multiracial. Some checked more than one race.
About 67.8% identified as female, 31.6% as male and five respondents as non-binary.
Nearly one-third of respondents reported annual household incomes of less than $25,000. An additional 36% earned less than $50,000 and another 15% brought home less than $75,000
About 13% reported their highest level of schooling was a bachelor’s degree, and a little over 10% had a graduate or professional degree. Some 12.4% held associate degrees, nearly 30% had attended college without completing a degree. More than 30% were high-school graduates and 3.4% did not finish high school.
Some survey questions were drawn from past research, including a 2017 survey of Chicago residents by the University of Texas at Austin.
Article image by Julio Lopez used under Unsplash license (Unsplash)
