Skip to main content

New research breaks down how the social Web is changing news

facebook twitter social web impact consume news feed 670
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Think of the last time a major news story broke. Where did you hear about it? For many social media users, sites like Facebook and Twitter are the way we discover news stories — status updates celebrating the death of Bin Laden or poking fun at Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s crack antics are the new newspaper boys yelling on the corner. And even when news isn’t breaking, social media is still a major hub for sharing stories.

Pew Research Center examined the role news plays in social media, and none of the results are shocking, but they underscore how essential the social web is for consuming news content. Here are some of the center’s findings: 

Redditors are the most news-obsessed. 

Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 1.20.28 PM 

People use different social networks for different purposes, and the study indicates that people who use Reddit often use it as a source for news — 62 percent find news items on the site, compared to 52 percent of Twitter users and 47 percent of Facebook users. Poor Pinterest isn’t the place for news — only 3 percent of users find news stories there (but just TRY to find a mason jar centerpiece image on Reddit, right?) 

Facebook is strongest news delivery service. 

Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 1.20.42 PM
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Even though Redditors are more likely to consume news than Facebook users, there are way more people who use Facebook than Reddit, so in terms of numbers, Facebook is delivering the most news to the most people. 

Variety is the spice of … news: Users often get news from more than one site. 

Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 1.20.53 PM
Image used with permission by copyright holder

 Most people – 65 percent – get their news from just one social site: Facebook. But the other 35 percent get their news from multiple sites — and that’s likely to increase as both Facebook and Twitter chase breaking news and events alerts. 

Breaking down social news delivery by demographics.

Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 1.21.13 PM
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Not all social news consumers are alike: males are more likely to get their news from LinkedIn than females, and Democrats are more likely to get their news from Twitter than Republicans. 

None of this means social news sharing is usurping traditional platforms. 

Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 1.21.22 PM
Image used with permission by copyright holder

 People aren’t just abandoning the practice of looking at traditional platforms for news, although YouTube and Facebook news-getters are less likely to do so than Twitter users. 

Twitter users are reading news on-the-go. 

Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 1.21.37 PM
Image used with permission by copyright holder

When it comes to checking mobile devices for news updates on the social Web, Twitter users are most likely to be tuned in, followed by LinkedIn users. It’s less likely that people are getting news on YouTube through their mobile device – which makes sense because watching videos is not a multitasker’s friend.

What does this mean for news makers and social networks? 

Nothing in this report is shocking, but it could be of use to Twitter and Facebook, since both networks are attempting to become better news sharing platforms. Twitter just experimented with push notifications for news alerts, and Mark Zuckerberg made it clear he wants Facebook to serve as the world’s newspaper — so the way people are currently consuming news on these sites is important for them to look at to develop strategy in the future.

Kate Knibbs
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kate Knibbs is a writer from Chicago. She is very happy that her borderline-unhealthy Internet habits are rewarded with a…
WhatsApp now lets you send self-destructing voice messages
WhatsApp logo on a phone.

If you’re on WhatsApp and regularly make use of the view once feature for photo and video messages, then you might be interested to learn that the feature has now been expanded to voice messages.

WhatsApp’s view once feature does what it says, deleting a message after it’s been viewed a single time. It’s been available for photos and videos since 2021, but now you can also send voice messages that can only be played once before they, too, disappear from the app.

Read more
X rival Threads could be about to get millions of more users
Instagram Threads app.

Threads -- Meta’s rival to X, formerly Twitter -- has just launched in the European Union (EU), a market with nearly half a billion people.

The app launched in the U.S. to much fanfare in July, with Meta hoping to attract X users disillusioned with the turbulence on the platform since Elon Musk acquired it for $44 billion 14 months ago.

Read more
X (formerly Twitter) returns after global outage
A white X on a black background, which could be Twitter's new logo.

X, formerly known as Twitter, went down for about 90 minutes for users worldwide early on Thursday ET.

Anyone opening the social media app across all platforms was met with a blank timeline. On desktop, users saw a message that simply read, "Welcome to X," while on mobile the app showed suggestions for accounts to follow.

Read more