Americans are now more likely to surf the web for news rather than buy a printed newspaper or switch on the radio, research reveals. The Internet as a news source is even catching up with television.

For the first time, Internet and mobile phone technology has taken the place of traditional news resources, the Pew Research Center reports.

Respondents to a Pew survey say they use various news feeds – some 46 per cent of them use up to six different sources a day. 

Half of those surveyed read the news in a local newspaper and 17 per cent read a national paper such as the New York Times or USA Today – compared to 61 per cent of respondents who connect to the Internet to read the news. About 54 per cent listen to the radio at home or in the car. 

The Pew report said: "Americans’ relationship with news is changing in dramatic and irreversible ways due to changes in the ‘ecology’ of how news is available. Traditional news organisations are still very important to their consumers but technology has scrambled every aspect of the relationship between news producers and the people who consume news."