Poll: People Still Seek 'Meaty' News

A new study finds Americans of all ages are charting their own paths across a media landscape that no longer relies on front pages and evening newscasts to dictate what's worth knowing. They still pay heed to serious news even as they seek out the lighter stuff, according to the Media Insight Project.

The conclusions burst the myth of the media "bubble" -- the notion that no one pays attention to anything beyond a limited sphere of interest, like celebrities or college hoops or Facebook posts.

"This idea that somehow we're all going down narrow paths of interest and that many people are just sort of amusing themselves to death and not interested in the news and the world around them? That is not the case," said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, which teamed with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research on the project. People today are nibbling from a news buffet spread across 24-hour television, websites, radio, newspapers and magazines, and social networks. Three-fourths of Americans see or hear news daily, including 6 in 10 adults under age 30, the study found. Nearly everyone -- about 9 in 10 people -- said they enjoy keeping up with the news. And more than 6 in 10 say that wherever they find the news, they prefer it to come directly from a news organization.