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The consumption of information on social media has become a key point over the past decade, with accusations that social platforms cause increased division and angst through sharing and engagement, while groups of people activists seek to stimulate disinformation and fake news by the same, as a way to steer the agenda in the direction they want.
It is difficult to argue that we are not more divided politically now than before the existence of social media, but the real cause of this division is less clear. Is it about increased access to information and / or a greater ability for political groups to reach people at all times of the day? Is this the changing news cycle, which now sees stories come and go in hours? Or could it be the media using rage as a weapon to boost their own ratings, essentially attracting clicks and comments by taking a more partisan perspective in their reporting?
In reality, it’s a combination of those things – but in every way, social media is clearly playing a role.
This is why the regular ‘Consumption of news on social networks‘the reports of Bench search are so valuable in understanding the modern media landscape.
This week, Pew released the latest version of his report, which highlights how Americans access news content and the role each social platform plays in this regard. The data comes from a survey of 11,178 people across the United States, providing an indicative measure of key trends and habits.
You can read the full overview of Pew’s study here, but in this article, we’ll take a look at some of the key points.
First, Pew says there has actually been a decline in the number of people relying on social media platforms for news content regularly in 2021.
As you can see here, 48% of those surveyed said they received news from social media “often” or “sometimes”, which is down on 2020, while overall, including ‘rarely’ responses, 67% of people now get at least news content from social platforms, up from 71% in 2020.
This is a minor drop, which shows that information consumption is still high on social platforms, and that social media consumption still holds an influence in this regard. But it is interesting to note the decline. Does this mean that more and more people are increasingly skeptical of the posts they see in social apps and therefore look to other sources to stay up to date?
In terms of consuming platform-specific information, Facebook and YouTube remain in the lead, although both are also down slightly from last year.
Last year, 36% of those polled said they regularly received news content on Facebook, while 23% noted the same for YouTube, so only a slight change. Twitter also saw a slight drop in this year’s survey (-2% from last year) while TikTok unsurprisingly increased, with 6% of adults now receiving news content on the platform. form, compared to 3% in 2020.
It’s hard to say how influential each platform is, given that the gaps are so small – but again, TikTok has seen a 100% increase in news content consumption, based on these statistics, which could make it an increasingly relevant factor for communicating on key issues, especially if you are looking to reach a younger audience.
On top of that, Pew also notes that Twitter, in particular, is particularly influential as a source of information among those who use it.
As explained by Bench:
“When you look at the proportion of users of each social media site who regularly receive news there, some sites stand out as being more ‘topical’, even though their total audience is relatively small. Twitter, for example, is used by 23% of American adults, but more than half of those users (55%) regularly receive information from the site. On the other hand, YouTube, although widely used, sees a smaller portion of its users regularly turning to the site for news (30%).“
This is a key and often overlooked aspect of Twitter’s influence – while Twitter is used by far fewer people overall, compared to Facebook or Instagram, the people who use it are, in Generally, more tuned in to the news cycle and the latest changes, which means, therefore, that talking points that start on Twitter tend to spill over to other platforms and apps.
In other words, Twitter’s influence is bigger than it looks because of the people you can reach through tweets, with journalists, commentators, influencers and more actively seeking to stay in the know. breaking news, then redistribute it through their own platforms into other apps.
So while your reach may be smaller on Twitter, the people you reach could be key to maximizing your post, an important consideration in these results, and in social media marketing in general, especially when it comes to social media. current trends.
As noted, given the ongoing debate about the influence of social platforms on the news cycle and how people receive and translate the latest updates, it is important to establish an understanding of the use of social platforms in this regard, and to get a feel for which platforms are more reliable for key information, and how this relates to such trends.
Pew’s report helps establish a clearer picture of what’s going on in this regard, which may be essential for in-depth research into the impacts of the news, while for brands it may also provide more insight. information on key usage behaviors for your planning.
You can read the full Pew Research 2021 ‘Social Media News Consumption Report here.
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