American Conversation Study

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Word of mouth has always been a critical influencer and form of marketing, but can media influence word of mouth? To find the answer, TVB commissioned Engagement Labs to assess and quantify the role media platforms have in driving Americans’ conversations. The survey data also provides insights into how Americans perceive the news they see and hear today through all media and highlights the major topics that Americans are discussing in their daily conversations across political party affiliations, race, ethnicity, and product categories.

What Influences Conversations, Key Findings:

Conversations are primarily face-to-face. In 2022, COVID-19 impacted those face-to-face conversations with more conversations taking place digitally and on the phone.
Americans have the most conversations about News of the Day. News of the Day conversations consist of local/regional news, national/international news, sports, traffic/transit, weather, and politics. The number of daily news of the day conversations has increased to 7.1 from 6.2 in our last American Conversation Study in 2020.
Media affects conversations:
- Television is the key to sparking and supporting American conversations about news of the day, local/regional news, and politics.
Respondents said that local broadcast TV news is their primary news source.
- They also found local broadcast TV news to be the most shareworthy, trustworthy, and believable.
- They found social media to be the least trustworthy and believable, and associate it with “fake news.”
If people could get only 5 TV channels, 4 of them would be on broadcast TV.
Key product category opinion leaders often bring up stories they heard on the local news in their daily conversations and find local broadcast TV news to be the most trustworthy of all media platforms measured.
62% of respondents said they are very likely to vote in the upcoming Nov’22 midterm elections.
The economy is the top motivating factor in getting respondents to vote in the midterm elections.