Elisa Shearer Archives

reportFeb 9, 2017

How Americans Encounter, Recall and Act Upon Digital News

A unique study of Americans’ online news habits over the course of a week provides a detailed window into how Americans learn about current events in the digital age.
short readsJul 20, 2016

Candidates’ social media outpaces their websites and emails as an online campaign news source

A quarter of U.S. adults (24%) turn to social media posts from either the Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump campaigns as a way of keeping up with the election, while 10% turn to their websites and 9% turn to emails.
reportJul 7, 2016

The Modern News Consumer

Digital innovation has had a major impact on the public’s news habits. How have these changes shaped Americans’ appetite for and attitudes toward the news?
reportMay 26, 2016

News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2016

A majority of Americans get news on social media, including 18% who do so often. News plays a varying role across the nine social networking sites studied.
short readsMar 28, 2016

Changing a social media profile picture is one way to express support or solidarity

In the wake of attacks in Brussels and in Lahore, Pakistan, some social media users are changing their profile pictures to express solidarity with victims and the people of these countries. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become a common way for Americans to get news, but they also can provide a way for […]
short readsMar 4, 2016

Half of those who aren’t learning about the election feel their vote doesn’t matter

About one-in-ten Americans (9%) did not learn about this year’s presidential election in a given week from any of 11 types of sources asked about in a January Pew Research Center survey. One striking trait of this group is their lack of faith in the impact of voting. Half of this group thinks that their […]
reportFeb 4, 2016

The 2016 Presidential Campaign – a News Event That’s Hard to Miss

About nine-in-ten Americans learn about the election in a given week. But they are divided on what type of news source – from television to digital to radio to print – they find most helpful.
short readsJan 28, 2016

Contentious Republican debates lure many Democrats to tune in

While a majority of Americans have watched at least one of the debates for the 2016 presidential election, there are striking differences between parties when it comes to which side’s debates people are watching.
short readsAug 19, 2015

How do Americans use Twitter for news?

A look at how researchers analyzed news habits on Twitter using a small but representative sample of users drawn from a national survey of U.S. adults.
reportAug 19, 2015

Methodology: How do Americans use Twitter for news?

This analysis is exploratory research aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of news habits on Twitter by using a survey-based sample to identify a representative group of Twitter users and study their behavior. The study is based on Twitter activity of 176 U.S. adults who identified themselves as Twitter users and gave Pew Research Center permission […]