Even though it’s ready to give up the news business, Facebook is still the No. 1 social media news source for Americans.
Consuming news on social media has become a mainstay over the past decade, leading to accusations that these platforms are fueling division and anxiety through sharing and engagement. Many organizations have always found ways to increase the spread of false information and fake news on popular platforms like Facebook in their own desired direction.
However, the trend of reading news on social networks still does not tend to decrease. A new report from Pew Research shows that 30% of users in the US say they regularly receive news from Facebook – the social networking platform owned by Meta, YouTube is second with 26%.
Digging deeper into each social network’s users, Pew researchers found that some people actively avoid these platforms providing news, but this number is relatively small.
Instagram, Nextdoor, and TikTok are on the rise in terms of users who regularly get news. In 2023, 43% of TikTok users said they regularly receive news from this video platform, nearly doubling from 22% in 2020.
More than half of Americans (56%) say they often get news from devices such as phones, computers, or tablets, a number that increased slightly from 49% in 2022. The proportion of users is stable with People often receiving news from television (30%), print newspapers (10%), and radio (15%).
There are demographic differences between the groups of people who regularly visit social media sites for news. The report says women make up a larger proportion of platforms such as Nextdoor (66%), Facebook (62%), Instagram (59%) and TikTok (58%), while men dominate on platforms such as Reddit (67%), X (62%), and YouTube (58%).
