We've known since at least 2018 that news consumption in the United States has turned a corner. At the time, the Pew Research Center found that social media gave people more information than print journalism (a trend that worsened print news (opens in a new window) ).
The latest Pew survey on the subject, from July 2022, showed that the number of people who absorb news from social networks remains the same (91%, more or less). And for people who use Facebook regularly (70% of American adults), 31% also use it regularly for information.
That's more than a second, YouTube. It has 82% more regular users, but few people use it for news. Twitter stands out: only 27% of respondents use the platform regularly, but 14% use it for news, and it ranks third in news consumption. Instagram and TikTok rank fourth and fifth, while other services rank first for reading news.
A new platform entered the search this year, Nextdoor, the neighborhood's local social network, although only 4% say they get their news there regularly.
Looking closely at the percentage of total social media users posting their news there, Twitter leads the way in 2022 at 53%, followed by Facebook at 44%.
The biggest trend to note is that old guard social media numbers are dwindling due to public news consumption. Instagram, TikTok and Twitch are on the rise.
Finally, the Pew Center provides an interesting analysis of the self-reported demographic data of a panel of 12,147 participants (opens in a new window) for this four-day survey. The graph shows, for example, that women search Facebook more for news than men, that the number of users is between 30 and 49 years old and that the majority are white. Guys seem to prefer YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and LinkedIn for news.
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College goers stick to LinkedIn for degrees. Young people (18-29 years old) rely heavily on Snapchat and TikTok for their news. For all social networks, there are more and more people who identify themselves as democrats or use those who have left politics to get news. (I wonder where the right-wing outsiders get their information; what a mystery!)
To learn more, read the full Pew Research report (opens in a new window) .
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