{"id":13938,"date":"2014-09-24T09:51:05","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T14:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:21:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:21:13","slug":"how-social-media-is-reshaping-news","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/09\/24\/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news\/","title":{"rendered":"How social media is reshaping news"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ever-growing digital native news world now boasts about\u00a05,000 digital news sector jobs<\/a>, according to our recent calculations, 3,000 of which are at 30 big digital-only news outlets. Many of these digital organizations emphasize the importance of social media in storytelling and engaging their audiences. As journalists gather for the annual\u00a0Online News Association conference<\/a>, here are answers to five\u00a0questions about\u00a0social media and\u00a0the news.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

\u00a0How do social media sites stack up on news? <\/strong>When you take into account both the total reach of a site (the share of Americans who use it) and the proportion of users who get news\u00a0on the\u00a0site, Facebook is the obvious<\/a> news powerhouse among the social media sites.\u00a0Roughly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults use the site, and half of those users get news there \u2014 amounting to 30% of the general population.<\/p>\n\n

YouTube is the next biggest social news pathway \u2014 about half of Americans use the site, and a fifth of them get news there, which translates to 10% of the adult population and puts the site on par with\u00a0Twitter. Twitter reaches\u00a016% of Americans and half of those users say they get news there, or 8% of Americans. And although only\u00a03% of the\u00a0U.S. population use reddit, for those that do, getting news there is a major draw–62% have gotten news from the site.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

How do social media users participate in news?\u00a0<\/strong>Half of social network site users have\u00a0shared news stories, images or videos <\/a>, and nearly as many \u00a0(46%) have discussed a news issue or event. In addition to sharing news on social media, a small number are\u00a0also covering the news themselves, by posting\u00a0photos or videos of news events. Pew Research found that in 2014, 14% of social media users posted their own photos of news events to a social networking site, while 12% had posted videos. This practice has played a role in a number of recent breaking news events, including\u00a0the riots in Ferguson, Mo.<\/p>\n\n

\"Social<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

\u00a0How do social media users discover news?\u00a0<\/strong>Facebook\u00a0is an important source of website referrals for many news outlets,\u00a0but the users who arrive via Facebook spend far less time and consume far fewer pages than those who arrive directly. The same is true of users arriving by search.\u00a0Our analysis of comScore data found<\/a>\u00a0visitors who go to\u00a0a news media website directly spend\u00a0roughly three times as long as those who wind up there through search or Facebook, and they view roughly five times as many pages per month.\u00a0This higher level of engagement from direct visitors is evident\u00a0whether a\u00a0site\u2019s\u00a0traffic is driven by search or social sharing and it has big implications for news organizations who are experimenting with digital subscriptions while endeavoring to\u00a0build a loyal audience.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

What’s the news experience like on Facebook?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Our study of\u00a0news consumption on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0found Facebook users are experiencing a relatively diverse array of news stories on the site \u2014 roughly half of Facebook users regularly see six different topic areas. The most common news people see is\u00a0entertainment news: 73% of Facebook users regularly see this kind of content on the site.\u00a0Unlike Twitter<\/a>, where a core function is the\u00a0distribution of information as news breaks, Facebook is not yet a place many turn to for learning about\u00a0breaking news. (Though the company may be trying to change that by tweaking its algorithm to make the posts appearing in newsfeed more timely<\/a>.) Still, just 28% of Facebook news consumers ever use the site\u00a0to keep up with a news event as it unfolds, less than half of those users\u00a0would\u00a0turn to Facebook first to follow breaking news.<\/p>\n\n

How does social media impact the discussion of news events?<\/strong>\u00a0Our recent survey revealed social media doesn\u2019t always facilitate conversation<\/a> around the important issues of the day. In fact, we found\u00a0people\u00a0were less willing to discuss their opinion on\u00a0the Snowden-NSA story on social media than they were in person. And Facebook and Twitter\u00a0users were less likely to want to share their opinions in many face-to-face settings, especially if they felt their social audience disagreed with them.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pew Research Center has gathered a lot of data over the past year on how social media networks are shaping news consumption and distribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"66b6868811bc5be978cc8ca0572d5ff7","termId":940},{"key":"00fc20fdda50308924728f222f030178","termId":932}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[],"bylines":[932,940],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13938","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-andrea-caumont","bylines-monica-anderson","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-journalism"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":683,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/09\/24\/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":25725,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":25725,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":25725,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":25725,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":25725,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png?w=640&h=376&crop=1","width":640,"height":376,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":25725,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/03\/1-PJ_14.01.09_ReferralTraffic_Traffic-to-News-Sites_640px.png?w=640&h=376&crop=1","width":640,"height":376,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"How social media is reshaping news","description":"Pew Research Center has gathered a lot of data over the past year on how social media networks are shaping news consumption and distribution.","og_title":"How social media is reshaping news","og_description":"Pew Research Center has gathered a lot of data over the past year on how social media networks are shaping news consumption and distribution.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":25725,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"66b6868811bc5be978cc8ca0572d5ff7","termId":940},{"key":"00fc20fdda50308924728f222f030178","termId":932}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/13938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/13938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103554,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/13938\/revisions\/103554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=13938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}