Word of mouth has been a news source since 40,000 B.C. when the settling of the Americas happened. News spread by word of mouth. After that, word of mouth was unstoppable. And to this day, it is the most popular source of news
http://ban.jo/blog/social-discovery-word-of-mouth-is-world-of-mouth/
In January 2011, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey consisting of 2, 251 adults. The survey questioned the individuals as to what they turned to for the news of the week. 74% said they turned to local TV news, 55% said word of mouth, 51% said radio (broadcast and/or web), 50% said local newspaper (print and/or web), 47% said Internet (search, social networks, blogs) and 9% said print newsletter. Considering the fact that this survey was conducted back in 2011, one could assume the numbers have changed and that word of mouth is possibly in first place now.
“Word-of-mouth information tends to fill in gaps in the media infrastructure. Its importance rises the less a subject is covered. A Brookings Institution study this year, for example, found that “family and friends” were the most popular and highly regarded providers of education news.”
Though local TV news was at the top in the survey because of being valid, word of mouth did, does and will continue to be the most popular source of news for people around the world.
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