Social media outpaces print newspapers in the U.S. as a news source
Social media outpaces print newspapers in the U.S. as a
news source
BY ELISA SHEARER December 10, 2018
Social media sites have surpassed print newspapers as a
news source for Americans: One-in-five U.S. adults say they often get news via
social media, slightly higher than the share who often do so from print
newspapers (16%) for the first time since Pew Research Center began asking
these questions. In 2017, the portion who got news via social media was about
equal to the portion who got news from print newspapers.
Social media’s small edge over print emerged after years
of steady declines in newspaper circulation and modest increases in the portion
of Americans who use social media, according to a Pew Research Center survey
conducted earlier this year.
Overall, television is still the most popular platform
for news consumption – even though its use has declined since 2016. News
websites are the next most common source, followed by radio, and finally social
media sites and print newspapers. And when looking at online news use combined
– the percentage of Americans who get news often from either news websites or
social media – the web has closed in on television as a source for news (43% of
adults get news often from news websites or social media, compared with 49% for
television).
Among the three different types of TV news asked about,
local TV is the most popular – 37% get news there often, compared with 30% who
get cable TV news often and 25% who often watch national evening network news
shows.
For the first time, we also asked respondents if they got
news from a streaming device on their TV – 9% of U.S. adults said that they do
so often. There is a large amount of overlap between those who stream TV news
and those who get news on broadcast television – a majority of those who get
news from streaming TV often (73%) also say that they get news often on
broadcast or cable TV.
News diets differ drastically for younger and older
Americans. Age gaps that have long been notable have now widened substantially,
with those 65 and older five times as likely as 18- to 29-year-olds to often
get news from TV. A large majority of those 65 and older (81%) get news from
television often, as do about two-thirds (65%) of those 50 to 64. Far fewer
young Americans are turning to television news, however – only 16% of those 18
to 29 and 36% of those 30 to 49 get news often from television.
The age divide is nearly as large for social media, but
in the other direction: Those 18 to 29 are about four times as likely to often
get news there as those 65 and older.
Print’s popularity only persists among those 65 and
older. Among the oldest age group, about four-in-ten (39%) get news there
often, but no more than 18% of any other age group do.
Online news websites are more popular among those ages 30
to 49. About four-in-ten (42%) in this age group get news often from websites
and news apps. About a quarter (27%) of 18- to 29-year-olds get news from news
websites, making it the second most commonly used platform for news for that
age group. For these youngest adults, social media is the most popular news
platform – 36% get news there often, topping news websites, TV (16%), radio
(13%) and print (2%).
Younger Americans are also unique in that they don’t rely
on one platform in the way that the majority of their elders rely on TV. No
more than half of those ages 18 to 29 and 30 to 49 get news often from any one
news platform.
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