Facebook and YouTube are the Most Popular Sites For Finding News Content, report says

There have been claims that social media platforms have caused more division and angst through sharing and engagement, while activist groups use the same platforms to spread misinformation and fake news in order to influence public opinion. 

One cannot deny that we are more politically divided today than we were before social media existed, but what is causing this difference is unclear. Is it because people have more access to information and/or political groups have the ability to reach people at any time of day or night? As a result, news cycles have shortened and stories are now published within a few hours. Media outlets propagandising rage to boost their own ratings, in effect luring clicks and comments by reporting from a more partisan standpoint? In reality, it’s a combination of these factors, but social media has undoubtedly played a role.

For this reason, the regular Pew Research reports on ‘News Consumption Across Social Media’ are important in explaining today’s media world. 

Trends in Social Media Use Over the Past Decade (And Where Things Are Headed)

The latest edition of Pew’s research, which examines how Individuals obtain news data and the role that each social media site plays in it, was published this week. The information comes from a study of 11,178 people conducted across the United States, and it provides an indication of major trends and patterns.

The whole Pew report is available here, but we’ll focus on a few significant findings in this post.

To begin, Pew’s report confirms that the number of people who routinely rely on social media platforms for news material will fall in 2021. 

It’s clear from the data that 48% of respondents get news from social media “often” or “sometimes,” which is down from 71% in 2020. Overall, including the “rarely” responses, 67% of people now get at least some news content from social platforms, down from 84% in 2020.

That’s a small decline, but it shows that social media consumption of news is still significant and that social media consumption still has power in this regard. However, it’s noteworthy that the rate of decline over time. Is this a sign that people are becoming more suspicious about what they read on social media and instead turning to other sources to keep current?

Facebook and YouTube continue to lead in platform-specific news consumption, though both are down slightly from last year. 

Last year, 36% of those polled said they routinely get news items from Facebook, while 23% said the same about YouTube, so there’s only been a tiny shift in that percentage. In this year’s poll, Twitter also saw a minor decline (down 2 percent from last year), while TikTok saw an increase, with 6 percent of adults now receiving some news material on the app, up from 3 percent in 2020.

Given the small differences, it’s hard to say how influential each platform will become. On the other hand, TikTok has seen a 100 percent increase in news content consumption, according to these figures, which could make it an increasingly relevant consideration for communicating about important issues, especially if you want to reach younger audiences. 

Besides this, Pew says that for individuals who use Twitter as a news source, it is extremely influential. It explains; 

“When looking at the proportion of each social media site’s users who regularly get news there, some sites stand out as being more “newsy” even if their total audience is relatively small. Twitter, for example, is used by 23% of US adults, but more than half of those users (55%) get news on the site regularly. On the other hand, YouTube, though widely used, sees a smaller portion of its users turning to the site for news regularly (30%).” 

Even though Twitter is used by far fewer people than Facebook or Instagram, those who do use it are generally more tuned into the news cycle and the latest shifts, which means, as a result, that conversation points that originate on Twitter tend to move to other platforms and apps. 

If you look at it another way, the reach of Twitter is greater than it appears since journalists, analysts, influencers and others actively attempt to keep up with the newest news before re-disseminating it via their own platforms in other applications.

As a result, even if your audience on Twitter is smaller, the people you do reach could be crucial in terms of maximising your messaging, an important consideration in light of these findings and in social media marketing in general, particularly in relation to news trends.

Being that there is a lot of discussion going on right now about the effect social media platforms are having on the news cycle, as well as how people are receiving and interpreting the latest updates, it’s imperative that we get a handle on how people use social media as a source of key information and how that relates to current trends.

The Pew Research Center’s analysis provides a better understanding of what’s happening in this area, which can be useful for further research into the impact of news, while giving brands better insight into key usage behaviors for your future planning.