Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 19, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The Internet has already become firmly established as an everyday medium in large parts of society. Researchers at the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research came to this conclusion in the current Allensbach Computer and Technology Analysis (ACTA) for 2007. According to the study carried out, the number of Internet users in Germany rose by six percent compared with the previous year to a total of 35.8 million. 19.3 million German citizens even use the Internet daily.
The study further proves the growing importance of the Internet as an information-source. The German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (Bitkom) also confirms this trend. “We continuously observe visitor behavior on the twenty largest news portals in Germany,” Stephan Kahl, Press Spokesman Public Sector & New Markets at Bitkom, reports in a conversation with pressetext. It should be noted here, however, that especially up-to-the-minute information continues to be obtained preferably from classic media. “The Internet is becoming increasingly established as the fourth source for news,” Kahl further explains. News- medium number one, however, remains television, followed by newspaper and radio. The ACTA study also proves this: Only 32 percent of those surveyed stated that computers and the Internet were indispensable for their daily news information.
The study conducted by the Allensbach market researchers delivered particularly clear results in the survey of the younger generation. In the 20-to-29 age group, about just under a third no longer reads a newspaper and obtains the desired information exclusively from the net and television. How strongly the Internet was able to catch up with other media in this area is illustrated by the comparison with the figures from 2004: At that time, about one fifth of the surveyed persons in this age group stated that they did not read a newspaper. For the currently available ACTA study, 10,369 people aged 14 to 64 were surveyed between January and August of this year about their information behavior and use of technology.
