People using the Internet as an exclusive source of news tend to consume more information, but cover fewer topic areas, according to a study on how Australians consume news by Total Advertising and Communications.

According to the study, this trend, called "thintelligence," as exclusively online news consumers become more intelligent or knowledgeable about very niche topics, but, "from an overall perspective, our understanding of world and national events is a bit more superficial," The Australian reported Monday.

This study surveyed 200 urban Australians between ages 18 and 54 in August, 2008.

The survey found that 70.1 percent of respondents said the Web "allows them to avoid news topics that are not of interest." Though it sounds like a good thing, there are many articles that "may not seem to be of interest until they are actually read," according to The Australian.

Also, online news readers usually do not venture outside the same few topics or information areas - 59.9 percent tend to read items from the same sections, while only 50 percent said they would read it if an article was ranked "most read" or "top 10."

The level of control and depth of information are some key benefits the Internet offers.

However, the survey noted that when they buy a paper, 62.7 percent of respondents said they often read articles that they hadn't intended to, which makes newspaper readers "more informed on a wider range of issues," according to The Australian.

To break down the demographics of the question, this view is pretty much widely held among different age groups. However, females (60 percent) were more likely to hold this view than males (40 percent), according to the study.

The survey indicated that among newspaper readers, people will typically have awareness of the same news items, but among solely Internet news consumers, they are less likely to know about the same news items as each other.

According to the study, the best way to avoid "thintelligence" is to read the paper, to be connected to what is happening in the outside world and to others, and then use the Web to indulge in what is happening in the internal world, The Australian reported.