Pew: Two-Thirds of American Adults Get News from Social Media

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According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, about two-thirds of American adults are getting “at least some of their news on social media” with two-in-ten doing so often: about 67 percent of American adults somewhat rely on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for news, up from 62 percent in 2016. And for the first time, the Center found that 55 percent of American adults over 50 were consuming news on social media sites, up from 45 percent in 2016.

Not only have Americans grown somewhat in their use of social media for news overall, but now they are more likely than ever to get news from multiple social media sites. About one quarter of all U.S. adults (26%) get news from two or more of these sites, up from 18% in 2016 and 15% in 2013. News users of Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp are particularly likely to get news on multiple social networks; at least 90% of their news users get news on at least two social media sites.
 
67% from twitter and facebook. Well, there's the real fake news, documented where the lunacy is coming from.
 
Explains the polarization of society. Media, like a disease to infect the minds of America.
 
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Well the LOCAL morning news regularly has questions/polls that requires twitter.

That said, wonder what's more scary, this or the article some years back where most 18-32 (or whatever the demographic was) get their news from Jon Stewart's Daily Show
 
I think , even if most don't realize it, or verbalize it.. most people understand us mainstream media is propaganda on par with any less savory but functional country.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Well the LOCAL morning news regularly has questions/polls that requires twitter.

That said, wonder what's more scary, this or the article some years back where most 18-32 (or whatever the demographic was) get their news from Jon Stewart's Daily Show
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Funny you would mention that, research from 2012 shown that Daily Show only watchers had the best knowledge of actual news events (for televised "news"). Fox news watchers had less knowledge than people that did not watch the news at all. Naturally, people who watch/listen to more than one source scored the best.

http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2012/confirmed/
 
Andy735 said:
Funny you would mention that, research from 2012 shown that Daily Show only watchers had the best knowledge of actual news events (for televised "news"). Fox news watchers had less knowledge than people that did not watch the news at all. Naturally, people who watch/listen to more than one source scored the best.

http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2012/confirmed/
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Fox News and MSNBC have more air time dedicated to opinion and commentary based content than that of "factual reporting." I implore people to stay away from the FUD that is Fox News and MSNBC. I often tune into NPR when I want to hear fact based news, especially if it is on the international level.
 
Doesn't matter, most of the social media news is reposted actual news. The issue (and has always been) that people only read headlines, so they can get back to their lives faster.

Has no bearing on where it was posted or how it was posted. If you can convince people to read more than headlines then you will probably see people understand news more.
 
2/3 of American's are brainwashed morons.
Trimlock said:
Has no bearing on where it was posted or how it was posted. If you can convince people to read more than headlines then you will probably see people understand news more.
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Of course the source matters! Facebook is nothing, but a leftist propaganda machine that only posts from biased, leftist sites. Journalists these days never post 100% unvarnished facts. They are all trying to sway you one way or the other.

Did you buy your soylent green based on a Facebook/Twitter ad, too?

#1 trending story on my Facebook: hit piece on Steve Bannon/Trump. I'm sure no one is interested in Hurricane Irma right now, sure.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
2/3 of American's are brainwashed morons.
Of course the source matters! Facebook is nothing, but a leftist propaganda machine that only posts from biased, leftist sites. Journalists these days never post 100% unvarnished facts. They are all trying to sway you one way or the other.

Did you buy your soylent green based on a Facebook/Twitter ad, too?

#1 trending story on my Facebook: hit piece on Steve Bannon/Trump. I'm sure no one is interested in Hurricane Irma right now, sure.
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That's true regardless of the user and where they get their news.

People will look up and chose to read stuff that goes with their line of thinking, its hard for people to argue with themselves let alone admit to themselves they need to change their mind.
 
Trimlock said:
That's true regardless of the user and where they get their news.

People will look up and chose to read stuff that goes with their line of thinking, its hard for people to argue with themselves let alone admit to themselves they need to change their mind.
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It is a system designed to get clicks. Check out this cool tool, from last year, that shows the difference in articles shown by Facebook depending on your calculated political views. Gotta get that ad money.

http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/
 
Andy735 said:
Funny you would mention that, research from 2012 shown that Daily Show only watchers had the best knowledge of actual news events (for televised "news"). Fox news watchers had less knowledge than people that did not watch the news at all. Naturally, people who watch/listen to more than one source scored the best.

http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2012/confirmed/
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We know this is true because of confirmation bias? What you mean to say, is that Daily Show viewers are more in sync with the dominant narratives spewed by places like CNN, etc...

Stewart himself said repeatedly that he is 'just a comedian' and he (or his show) has no obligation to be truthful or factual. I don't know how that translate into being better informed. Except being more in sync with a particular political bias.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
2/3 of American's are brainwashed morons.
Of course the source matters! Facebook is nothing, but a leftist propaganda machine that only posts from biased, leftist sites. Journalists these days never post 100% unvarnished facts. They are all trying to sway you one way or the other.

Did you buy your soylent green based on a Facebook/Twitter ad, too?

#1 trending story on my Facebook: hit piece on Steve Bannon/Trump. I'm sure no one is interested in Hurricane Irma right now, sure.
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Wow you are truly scary. Facebook users post whatever they want (sometimes beyond what is legal). Given what my live feed of "friends" gets Filled with is mostly far right propaganda because my relatives are from the Deep South. As random people post whatever they want Facebook is obviously not some "leftists" focused site. It is a reflection of all the users on it from the left right and center.
 
jpm100 said:
We know this is true because of confirmation bias? What you mean to say, is that Daily Show viewers are more in sync with the dominant narratives spewed by places like CNN, etc...

Stewart himself said repeatedly that he is 'just a comedian' and he (or his show) has no obligation to be truthful or factual. I don't know how that translate into being better informed. Except being more in sync with a particular political bias.
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Read the study, it is on facts from weekly news on domestic and foreign issues. For example look at these two questions:
Which party has the most seats in the House of Representatives right now?
To the best of your knowledge, have the opposition groups protesting in Egypt been successful in removing Hosni Mubarak?

Not sure how you get a bias in that. One party has a majority and Hosni Mubarak is or isn't in power. There is a reason I put news in quotations but as others have stated most cable "news" is opinion pieces.
 
Andy735 said:
Read the study, it is on facts from weekly news on domestic and foreign issues. For example look at these two questions:
Which party has the most seats in the House of Representatives right now?
To the best of your knowledge, have the opposition groups protesting in Egypt been successful in removing Hosni Mubarak?

Not sure how you get a bias in that. One party has a majority and Hosni Mubarak is or isn't in power. There is a reason I put news in quotations but as others have stated most cable "news" is opinion pieces.
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I was commenting on Stewart's show declaration of non-obligation to facts or truth. I can tunnel vision any study on one detail, too.
 
Hmm,
I don't use FB or twitter and I guess YouTube can be considered "social media". I often watch the live streams of FoxNews on YT (since I don't have cable or satellite) for my news in the morning.
So I am roped into getting my news from social media. Ain't that a bi*ch.
 
That's fine. That's also where I send my donations. I give a like to notable causes. I think should help them out. I'm helping out with Hurricane Irma with my likes. To those in Florida:

moana-review-maui-youre-welcome-song-gif.gif


I see people post 'news' on Facebook (usually from some niche website or very bias conspiracy theory style site), and I'll go out and debunk it.
 
The only time I watch news is during big events. Otherwise I don't care to watch a bunch of robots bickering censored useless nonsense at each other. And big events make their headlines everywhere so it's not like you need to watch constantly to catch them.
 
haste. said:
Scary...
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Not really. If you follow, for example, the WSJ, NYT, Wapo, NPR and so on, you get articles delivered to your news feed. They're the same articles you'll see if you go to their respective sites. Now if you only get your news from that thing on the right side of the browser, then yeah, that's messed up, but I can promise you that I see the same articles on FB that I see from multiple other sources. I sure don't recall people complaining about getting news from RSS 5 or 10 years ago, so I'm not sure why this is any different.
 
Ur_Mom said:
That's fine. That's also where I send my donations. I give a like to notable causes. I think should help them out. I'm helping out with Hurricane Irma with my likes. To those in Florida:

View attachment 36189

I see people post 'news' on Facebook (usually from some niche website or very bias conspiracy theory style site), and I'll go out and debunk it.
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I do this too. I do it to those on the left and the right. The primary difference is that on the Right they don't believe the debunking sites. Then there's the vegans that swear humans are herbivores (which so obviously false, i don't know why they think it).
 
I have an older friend at work who is always telling me about some news that he heard that always turns out to be fake because he gets it from stuff he reads on Facebook. He thinks Facebook is "the internet". I have never seen him use the browser on his phone.
 
nilepez said:
Not really. If you follow, for example, the WSJ, NYT, Wapo, NPR and so on, you get articles delivered to your news feed. They're the same articles you'll see if you go to their respective sites. Now if you only get your news from that thing on the right side of the browser, then yeah, that's messed up, but I can promise you that I see the same articles on FB that I see from multiple other sources. I sure don't recall people complaining about getting news from RSS 5 or 10 years ago, so I'm not sure why this is any different.
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Unfortunately that's not the case for many consuming this information.
 
We have known for a long time now that 2/3 of Americans are morons. We just need to figure out how to prevent them from driving, voting and reproducing.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
We have known for a long time now that 2/3 of Americans are morons. We just need to figure out how to prevent them from driving, voting and reproducing.
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And who is setting the standard for what qualifies someone to drive, vote, or reproduce?
 
Nightly news in the past was a loss, you didn't make money on it, maybe you broke even. Now the news is a business and must turn a profit, that is a problem.

Americans have also gotten used to "News" 24/7 so to vie for viewership it needs to be even more sensational so we have MSNBC and Fox which at this point aren't even really news.

I watch very little news, typically the nightly news on one of the major networks. I avoid the 24/7 news channels. Lately I get more of my headlines and reports from the nightly comics and John Oliver.
 
jardows said:
And who is setting the standard for what qualifies someone to drive, vote, or reproduce?
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Driving is easy, require an actual drivers test that tests actual driving skill. Current drivers exams are jokes. The rest is more complex, though step one to voting should require a validated ID.
 
haste. said:
Unfortunately that's not the case for many consuming this information.
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I suspect you're wrong. Virtually all articles that friends share are not related to subjects in the top news area. Now do they follow partisan news? Yes. And both left and right use some really questionable sources (this is where Snopes comes in handy), but most of what I see is from reputable sources....(not so much a year or 2 ago).
 
What if I told you there was a way to get your news from CNN, MSNBC, Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, NPR, Democracy Now, France 24, Sky News & Deutsche Welle (Germany) all in one concentrated place?

That would be from No Agenda. Get the whole story.
 
westrock2000 said:
What if I told you there was a way to get your news from CNN, MSNBC, Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, NPR, Democracy Now, France 24, Sky News & Deutsche Welle (Germany) all in one concentrated place?

That would be from No Agenda. Get the whole story.
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And how is that different from getting it on FB? Serious question.
 
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