A study published by the Pew Research Center into the digital news habits of adults in the US has revealed some interesting statistics.
Reportedly, around half of those surveyed confirmed that they got their news ‘at least sometimes’ from social media platforms.
Perhaps more strikingly, 31% of surveyed US adults reported getting their news regularly from Facebook. This figure puts Facebook ahead of its competitor platforms for news use, 25% used preferred YouTube, 14% Twitter, 13% Instagram, and just 10% TikTok.
Some of these platforms had a greater portion of their user base using the site for news. For example, Twitter and LinkedIn have approximately the same number of US adult users. However, 53% of Twitter users use the site regularly for news, compared to just 13% of LinkedIn users.
The study also revealed some interesting discrepancies between age groups and demographics. Over half of users who regularly get their news from Snapchat, TikTok, and Reddit are between ages 18 to 29, accounting for 67%, 52%, and 50% respectively.
Furthermore, women were found to make up a greater number of users who regularly get their news from Facebook, while men were more likely to turn to platforms like Twitter and Reddit.
