Local TV news is rated as the most important new source, followed by the Internet, according to the Carnegie Corporation's "Abandoning the News" study, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2007 reported.

Thirty-one percent of American respondents said local TV newscasts are the most important news sources, while the Internet followed with 25 percent. Newspapers, cable TV general news programmes, and national network TV newscasts were chosen by 14 percent, 9 percent and 7 percent of the respondents, respectively.

Gender also is a factor that influences people in choosing news sources, according to the Carnegie Corporation. For example, women ages 18 to 34 consider local TV newscasts as much more important (42 percent) compared with men (27 percent) of the same age. Meanwhile, men think the Internet is more important (31 percent) as a news source compared with women (17 percent), according to the report, World Digital Media Trends 2007, released by SFN and the World Association of Newspapers.