The National Association of Broadcasters has released a poll that shows broadcasting is the go-to emergency "first informer" for most Americans.
That comes as NAB CTO Sam Matheny prepares to testify at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the future of emergency alerts.
According to the online survey of 2,251 adults conducted March 16-19, 57% percent of respondents picked local radio, TV or national broadcast networks as their choice of media for information during weather or other emergencies. Text messages was second at 15%, followed by online (14%) and cable news (12%).
"[The] unique combination of trust and reliability is why, in addition to our ongoing, comprehensive news coverage of emergencies, broadcasters form the backbone of the Emergency Alert System (EAS)," Matheny plans to tell the Congress, according to a copy of his testimony.
