Social media outpaces print newspapers in the U.S. as a news source

[brooklynite]

Source: Pew Research Center

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.



Read more: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/10/social-media-outpaces-print-newspapers-in-the-u-s-as-a-news-source/

[Harker]

1. And down the memory hole we go.

We'll have even less comprehensible discourse.

[revolute]

2. Print Still trending down

Worth noting for context that News websites are the most often source over Social media 33% to 20%. Just because the newspaper isn't read in print, doesn't mean it's often the main source online.

Also interesting to see the flat trend for TV, news website, and Social between 2017-18, while Print continues trending downward.

[gopiscrap]

9. welcome to DU!

[LisaM]

3. We almost always get the Sunday NYT in paper, and I've noticed I really broaden my horizons

reading it. Why? Because I read sections of the paper I'd never link to in an online version. Take the book review section. I read the whole section, and sometimes find books I'm interested in that I would never encounter otherwise. I'll poke my head into the science section (I'm certainly not anti-science; it's just not my favorite section of the paper). I poke my head into the business section. Sometimes I read the whole paper, especially if we get a weekday version.

I also like the crossword puzzle in hard copy.

Anyway, I prefer reading the paper in hard copy, but my larger point is that by doing so, I expose myself to the whole paper, I don't just pick and choose my favorite subjects. I think it would behoove everyone to do that. When you read an online paper, do you read the whole thing? Probably not.

[guillaumeb]

5. Well said.

One can tailor the news to fit, but this approach basically means the user sees what they want to see, rather than what is there to be seen.

[guillaumeb]

4. Perhaps one reason that so many voters are so misinformed.

Local TV is not much better. The local "news" consists mainly of weather, sports, car crashes, and shootings.

[BadGimp]

6. It's still better than TV as a mass consumption source imo

[LudwigPastorius]

7. No wonder we're so fucked.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

8. I go for news website

Same as newspaper, but no paper waste. Social media is a terrible news source.