Pew Internet has released a new report “The State of Online Video”

OVERVIEW

Seven in ten adult internet users (69%) have used the internet to watch or download video. That represents 52% of all adults in the United States.

Driven by the popularity of online video among 18-29 year-olds, there have been dramatic increases since 2007 in the number of American adults watching:

• Comedy or humorous videos, rising in viewership from 31% of adult internet users in 2007 to 50% of adult internet users in the current survey
• Educational videos, rising in viewership from 22% to 38% of adult internet users
• Movies or TV show videos, rising in viewership from 16% to 32% of adult internet users
• Political videos, rising in viewership from 15% to 30% of adult internet users

On the other side of the camera, video creation has now become a notable feature of online life. One in seven adult internet users (14%) have uploaded a video to the internet, almost double the 8% who were uploading video in 2007. Home video is far and away the most popular content posted online, shared by 62% of video uploaders. And uploaders are just as likely to share video on social networking sites like Facebook (52% do this) as they are on more specialized video-sharing sites like YouTube (49% do this).

Yet, while video-sharing is growing in popularity, adult internet users have mixed feelings about how broadly they want to share their own creations. While 31% of uploaders say they “always” place restrictions on who can access their videos, 50% say they “never” restrict access. The remaining 19% fall somewhere in the middle. And while there is almost universal appreciation for the ease with which video-sharing sites allow uploaders to share video with family and friends, a considerable number (35%) also feel they should be more careful about what they post.

Download or read the full report here

The Pew Internet study finds the link between young adults, reputation management and social media.

• More than half (57%) of adult internet users say they have used a search engine to look up their name and see what information was available about them online, up from 47% who did so in 2006.
• Young adults, far from being indifferent about their digital footprints, are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. For example, more than two-thirds (71%) of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share with others online.
• Reputation management has now become a defining feature of online life for many internet users, especially the young. While some internet users are careful to project themselves online in a way that suits specific audiences, other internet users embrace an open approach to sharing information about themselves and do not take steps to restrict what they share.
• “Search engines and social media sites now play a central role in building one’s identity online,” said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and lead author of the report, “Many users are learning and refining their approach as they go–changing privacy settings on profiles, customizing who can see certain updates and deleting unwanted information about them that appears online.”
• When compared with older users, young adults are more likely to restrict what they share and whom they share it with. “Contrary to the popular perception that younger users embrace a laissez-faire attitude about their online reputations, young adults are often more vigilant than older adults when it comes to managing their online identities,” said Madden.

For more read the full report or download

Pew Internet informs: Director Lee Rainie discusses the Pew Internet Project’s latest research findings on people’s use of social media (social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and, yes, even email) and how technology has affected some of the ways people learn, make decisions, and seek and offer social support to others.

Pew Project For Excellence In Journalism has published their annual report on American Journalism – The state of the News Media. The report talks about all the aspects of news media – consumption, journalism, monetization, users and the news industry as whole across the mediums. It talks about the economics of online news, journalism’s future, users readiness to pay for the news and so on.

The major trends highlighted in the report:

• As we learn more about both web economics and consumer behavior, the unbundling of news seems increasingly central to journalism’s future.
• The future of New and Old Media are more tied together than some may think
• The notion that the news media are shrinking is mistaken.
• Technology is further shifting power to newsmakers, and the newest way is through their ability to control the initial accounts of events
• The ranks of self-interested information providers are now growing rapidly and news organizations must define their relationship to them
• When it comes to audience numbers online, traditional media content still prevails, which means the cutbacks in old media heavily impact what the public is learning through the new.

Lee Rainie, who is the Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project provides his own thoughts on journalism’s future. He seems to be optimistic. In an interview with Leonard Witt, he says:

"News organizations are trying to adapt to the new realities that will allow them to provide [high quality journalism], and there will always be a portion of the population who deeply cares about public life and civic life and the way that public institutions perform."

Here’s the video of the interview and the full transcript .

In response to this report Derek Thompson, staff editor at Atlantic Business comes up with 7 ideas that could save online journalism

Read the full "State of the News Media" report at http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2010/