Media Impact
Where Americans
Get Their News
Television remains
the most popular
source of news, and
nearly one-third of
Americans under the
age of 40 see satirical
news-oriented televi-
sion programs like The
Colbert Report and
The Daily Show with
Jon Stewart replac-
ing traditional news
outlets, according
to a new Rasmussen
Reports survey.
Among adults of all ages, 39 per-
cent believe such programs are making
Americans more informed about news
events; 21 percent believe they make
people less informed. Meanwhile, the
survey found that 70 percent of re-
sponding adults claim such programs
are not influential in shaping their own
political opinions.
In an earlier survey, the research-
ers found that most young readers also
are rejecting both their local daily
newspaper’s print and website editions
as sources of information. Most of the
52 percent of American adults who
routinely use the Internet find online
reporting comparable to that in their
local newspaper, although fewer than
half of them use the Internet as a daily
news source. Overall, a majority of
voters believe the Internet has had a
positive impact on journalism.
Cowboy Churches
Stetson-and-spurs crowd, but they may Morgan, pastor of the Cowboy Church
Faith Has Long Been Linked
set out a boot. of Ellis County, Texas.
to Western Way of Life
The back-to-basics approach “Churches, from the very begin-
works because, “The cowboy is a way ning, were looking to restore the early
Texas is the epicenter of a
more simple human being,” says church of Christ,” comments Kathleen
welcoming, come-as-you-are,
Royce Gregory, pastor of the Life Flake, a professor of American reli-
40-year-old faith movement
Brand Cowboy Church, in Ohio. gious history at Vanderbilt University
that’s grown gangbusters
Sermons are short and abound Divinity School, in Nashville, noting
in the past decade. From
with Western allegories. how the cowboy churches’ message is
Colorado to North Carolina,
“We get people classically American. “It was just a mat-
wranglers meet in riding arenas
who will not go to church ter of how literal they were about it.”
and barns and baptize believ-
anywhere else, people
ers in horse troughs. No one
who haven’t been in 30 To find the nearest meeting or event,
passes a collection plate to the
or 50 years,” says Gary check CowboyChurch.net/dir/.
September 2009 11
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