Press and Tower :: News and commentary on Erie PA newspaper, TV, radio, and new media » Polls

Poll: Favorite Super Bowl ad

joel — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:14:28 +0000

Just a few voters shared their interactions with Erie media via social networks when we asked the question. The most common use indicated that people are willing to post a link to an Erie online story on their personal Facebook wall, as well as “Like” local Erie media Facebook pages.

It time for our annual local Super Bowl ad poll. We’ve listed the top ten ads as picked by the USA Today panel. Their favorite this year was from Doritos:

What was your favorite?

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Poll: How do you socialize with Erie media?

joel — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:13:20 +0000

We haven’t asked your opinion in a while, but when we did ask about how you came down on the looming spectrum war between over-the-air broadcasters and the wireless community, an overwhelming majority sided with the TV stations to keep as much spectrum as needed to maintain free service.

The education reporter at the Erie Times-News, Sean McCracken told us this morning how the newspaper is deepening their commitment to social media, with nearly every reporter on staff now on Twitter. Of course, the paper itself, along with the TV newsrooms and early-adopter reporters have been tweeting for a while now (we’ve been tweeting since April 2009), and most have accompanying Facebook pages that roll stories and ask for input from readers and viewers (and some listeners of radio stations).

The question today is, how are you interacting with old-school media’s leveraging of social media? You can choose as many answers as you like, and weigh in on the comments.

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Poll: where do you fall in the spectrum war?

joel — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:21:10 +0000

When we last polled our P&T readers, we asked about your online video usage. A plurality said that they never watch local news video online, while over a third would occasionally do so. Just under a third would watch full newscasts or live video streams if offered.

There is much talk in the trade press about the looming spectrum crisis, with wireless broadband operators such as AT&T and Verizon screaming for more bandwidth, especially in the UHF “beachfront property” bands where signals can penetrate buildings better and have less dropout. That just happens to be where for the past 60 years your local television stations operate, and they are not giving up their “seed corn” without a fight.

The National Broadband Plan has called for an additional 500 MHz to be allocated to the wireless operators, a big chunk of which would come out of broadcasters’ spectrum “behind.” This proposal is coming after the spectrum that TV stations abandoned with the digital TV conversion.

So which side are you on; does the need for spectrum to operate smartphones and tablets and whatever next-generation technology is out there trump the outdated free TV model? Or is the highly-efficient, locally-responsive, and free one-to-many model of TV stations an inherent right of citizens in a representative democracy?

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Poll: your online news video usage

joel — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:28:58 +0000

In our poll last week about the media navel-gazing over their Hurricane Irene coverage, the majority of readers of P&T participating in our poll thought that the level of coverage was appropriate. Of course, that whole conversation died down when people saw the video of the real inland flooding damage in places like Middlebury, VT and Patterson, NJ.

Here’s a quote I recently read on my Facebook news feed:

I can’t believe that in the 21st Century I can’t watch the news (I) choose.

Well, actually, you can; kinda. Both WJET/WFXP and WICU/WSEE offer online video versions of certain stories. WICU/WSEE will also produce an online news headlines cast a couple times a day. GoErie will offer Web Extra video packages with big newspaper stories. Right now, no one locally is live streaming their news casts, nor offers an online archive of their casts.

How do you use local news video online (you can choose up to three answers)?

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Poll: did media overhype Irene?

joel — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:16:41 +0000

Right after the GoErie.com paywall went up we asked our Press and Tower readers if they would be willing to pay for site access. Close to 75% of respondents, including non-subscribers and partial week delivery subscribers said that they would not be willing to pay even $2.95 for monthly access to the portal. We will see how this changes in a few months.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hurricane Irene is history and now the Monday Morning Quarterbacking has commenced. Some in the media, with their defensive thin skins clearly showing, are asking whether there was too much hype around the storm, and will it hurt next time if people don’t heed the warnings about a more ferocious tropical storm.

Can you over-hype a named hurricane in the post-Katrina era?

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Poll: will you pay for GoErie access?

joel — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:38:35 +0000

When we last polled our P&T readers, we asked how media-ready you were in the event of a major storm. The highest vote getters were those that had portable radios and smart phones. Few had portable DTV’s that could receive the weather broadcasters forecasts and radar in their basement.

Over the past few days, the GoErie.com paywall has gone into effect. By now regular readers of the site are running into limited access and decisions are being made. What’s yours?

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Poll: do you have the media tools to weather a storm?

joel — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:18:54 +0000

Last month, our P&T poll asked if readers would use more local news if it were available on a mobile app. A plurality said, that they definitely would, and half indicated that they would at least give it a shot.

In the aftermath of devastating tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, AL and Joplin, MO, the role of over-the-air broadcast has been greatly reenforced as the first line for warnings and emergency response. In our own neck-of-the-woods we have had three tornado warnings in Erie County over recent days, and Doppler radar and the expertise of our TV meteorologists has been key.

The dilemma comes when your favorite weather personality says to take cover in your basement. In this era of DTV, what do you do to stay informed? Will Erie radio’s automatic EAS triggers be enough information to last out a storm using your transistor radio? Or should you go out and buy a battery-operated portable digital TV, not knowing if a signal will come in down in the basement?

An important question for our poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.