Pew Research Center

Generations, like people, have personalities, and Millennials - the American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium - have begun to forge theirs: confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change.

The trend is unmistakable: Fewer Americans are reading print newspapers as more turn to the Internet for their news. And while the percentage of people who read newspapers online is growing rapidly, especially among younger generations, that growth has not offset the decline in print readership.

The 2008 biennial news consumption survey finds four distinct segments in today's news audience: Integrators, who comprise 23% of the public; the less populous Net-Newsers (13%); Traditionalists - the oldest (median age: 52) and largest news segment (46% of the public); and the Disengaged (14%) who stand out for their low levels of interest in the news and news consumption.

Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) has received a lot of press coverage in this election -- is it starting to catch up with him? Close to half (48%) of Pew's interviewees say that they have been hearing too much about Sen Obama lately.

Local TV news is still the most popular source for learning something about the Presidential campaign followed by cable news networks, nightly broadcast TV newscasts and the daily newspaper.