“Word of mouth” through friends, family, neighbors and colleagues is a substantial source of community news and information. Overall, 55% of adults reported getting local news and information from this source at least weekly.  And for 14 of the 16 local topics asked about, the survey found that word of mouth was the fourth most cited source or higher—usually ahead of radio.

For information about community events, such as parades or block parties, word of mouth was tied with the internet as the second most relied upon source. Just over half of all U.S. adults (57%) say they get information about community or neighborhood events.  These adults most commonly cite local newspapers as their main source for information about this topic; one-quarter of all U.S. adults (25%) say local papers are the source they rely on most for this information.  Yet another 13% say they hear about community events most often through word of mouth.  Overall, word of mouth is cited as often as the internet (12%) as a key information source for community events, and is a particularly important source of information about community events for adults under age 40. 

Among young adults, both word of mouth (17%) and the internet (19%) top local newspapers (13%) as a primary source of information about community events.  Among adults age 40 and older, just 11% cite word of mouth and 9% cite the internet as their main source, while 32% say they rely on their local newspaper for this information.

Restaurants and local businesses are among the most followed local topics, with 55% and 60% of adults, respectively, reporting they get information about these topics.  For information about both local restaurants and other local businesses, word of mouth is the third most popular source, in each case cited by 13% of adults as the source they rely on most.  For each of these topics, word of mouth follows the internet and the local newspaper as the top two key sources, in order. 

An equally high number of adults (58%) get information about their local schools, and for them, the local newspaper (21%) and the internet (18%) are the most commonly cited sources.  Yet, one in ten adults cites word of mouth as the source they rely on most for this information, the same percent that cite local television news as their main source. 

Word of mouth is also the fourth most-cited source for local politics, campaigns and elections, a topic about which two-thirds of adults (67%) report getting information.   For 7% of adults, word of mouth is the source they rely on most for this information.  This is driven mainly by adults age 40 and older, among whom 9% say this is their main source.  Just 4% of younger adults say word of mouth is their top source for local political information, preferring the internet as a main source instead.