Facebook and YouTube remain the top social sites for news, a new report finds
Facebook may be ready to divorce the news business, but it’s still the No. 1 source of news on social media for Americans.
A new report finds 30% of U.S. adults say they regularly get news from the Meta-owned site. YouTube comes in a close second with 26%, according to the analysis published by Pew Research Center on Wednesday.
When Pew researchers drilled down and looked at the users of each social site, some stood out as turning to their platform of choice for news — even if they have relatively small userbases overall. More than half of X users, for example, say they regularly get news there. (Do I mean Twitter? Yes. But the report also found 70% of U.S. adults know Twitter has been renamed.)
In terms of users regularly getting news, Instagram, Nextdoor, and TikTok are on their way up. This year, 43% of TikTok users said they regularly get news from the site — up from just 22% in 2020.
More than half of Americans (56%) say they often get news from digital devices like their phone, computer, or tablet — up from 49% in 2022. The percent of Americans who say they often get their news from television (about 30%), print (about 10%), and radio (about 15%) was more consistent over the past year.
There are demographic differences among different cohorts of users who regularly turn to specific social media sites for news.
“Women make up a greater portion of regular news consumers on Nextdoor (66%), Facebook (62%), Instagram (59%) and TikTok (58%), while men make up a greater share on sites like Reddit (67%), X (62%) and YouTube (58%),” the report notes.
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