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How many people get their news from Facebook?

How many people get their news from Facebook?
Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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How many people get news from the social networks they use? The Pew Research Center has analyzed 11 social media sources, like Facebook and Reddit, and discovered what percentage of users on each gets news from that source.

There are lots of interesting facts in the research. Less than one percent of Vine users get news from the social video service, for example, and 14% of users of MySpace get news from MySpace. Also, people still use MySpace, which is news to lots of us.

Reddit has the highest percentage as a news source, with 62% of redditors using it for news. This isn’t surprising, as Reddit is mainly for sharing and talking about stories. Twitter and Facebook are next, followed by Google+. Right at the bottom is Pinterest, which isn’t a big source of news stories at all.

It’s a different story when looking at what percentage of the population get news from each source. Reddit is only used by 3% of Americans, so it’s right near the bottom of the table. Facebook is the winner, with 64% of the population using the site, and 30% of those users getting news from it.

Perhaps worryingly, 10% of YouTube viewers get news from the video site. Pew defines news as “information about events and issues that involve more than just your friends or family”, which might arguably include videos about Justin Bieber, but we can’t be sure.

Which social media sites do you use for news?

Read the full report here.

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Jonathan Riggall

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