In an August 19, 2007 article on the TVWeek website, Melissa Grego shares the results of research on which media Americans turn to for news about "big stories." The researchers focused on the April 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, and found that TV was the primary source to which all respondents turned for information. Not surprisingly, younger people were more likely to learn about the event and find out more about it from the Internet than older demographics.Grego writes: An aggressively updated -- and promoted -- Web site is an increasingly important tool in the arsenal of TV news outlets trying to reach, engage and hold on to younger news consumers. That is especially true when covering big stories that develop over an extended period of time, according to the latest Millennial Strategy Program research conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates. The organization formulates the Millennial reports for clients, ranging from broadcasters to Fortune 500 companies, bent on reaching the 18- to 29-year-old adult Millennial group and viewers in other key demographics.The new research was completed in May, just weeks after the April 16 Virginia Tech massacre in which one student killed 32 people and himself. The online survey asked 150 questions of more than 3,000 people who fall into the categories of Millennials; the next older demo, Gen Xers; and Baby Boomers. The queries focused on how respondents heard about and followed news of the killings.Television coverage was the primary source to which all three groups turned for information on the shooting spree, but nearly a quarter of the adult Millennials first learned about the story, which began unfolding as the school day started on the campus, via the Internet. Twenty-three percent of the adult Millennials cited the Internet as the source from which they first learned about Virginia Tech, compared with 19 percent of Gen Xers and 16 percent of Baby Boomers who cited the Web. Worth noting: As a group, Millennials were the last to know, and 29 percent of them heard about the Virginia Tech story by word of mouth, which includes text-messaging. In fact, in all three target demos, word of mouth was the No. 1 source of alerts to those who weren't at home, which suggests that broadcasters would profit from aggressive systems of alerts that reach people wherever they are via whatever technological platform is at hand.On the other hand, 37 percent of Millennials first learned about the story from TV, as did 43 percent of Gen Xers and 50 percent of Boomers.As the story continued to develop, the adult Millennials, seeking conveniently concise information, said they increasingly turned to Yahoo (17 percent, compared to 14 percent of the Gen Xers and 9 percent of the Boomers); CNN (16 percent, vs. 15 percent of the Gen Xers and Boomers); CNN.com (14 percent, vs. 11 percent of the Xers and 7 percent of the Boomers); or Fox News (13 percent, vs. 15 percent of the Xers and Boomers).Radio finished behind the other sources among all groups.The survey results confirm that TV is the most trusted source for breaking news, and that it does the best job of retaining its audience. Of those who learned of the Virginia Tech massacre on TV, 67 percent stayed with television throughout the next few hours.Of those who learned about the situation via the Internet, 49 percent stayed with the Internet and 20 percent switched to TV.Still, the figures show TV is vulnerable to loss of audience to the Web as the story plays out, said Jack MacKenzie, a former news director who is the creator and president of Magid's Millennial Strategy Program and executive VP of Magid's entertainment division."If the broadcast networks were the dominant way people found out about it -- and they were -- as time went on, the Internet began taking more and more of people's time, and it wasn't the broadcast networks' Web sites that they went to. They went to Yahoo," Mr. MacKenzie said. "That's where we think the vulnerability is on the TV side: To be a news brand today, you need to be a news brand of equal import on all platforms," he said... Click here for Grego's article in its entirety on the TVWeek website.