Inside Track
Social Media Overtakes Print Newspapers as Americans’ Source of News
The results of a Pew Research Center study show that “social media sites have surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans,” with 20 percent of U.S. adults turning to Facebook, Twitter, and similar sites as their source of information about what is going on in the world.
The study was based on a survey conducted by Pew between July 30 and August 12, 2018 and shows that television — still leading the pack — saw a decline from 57 percent in 2016 to 49 percent in 2018. News websites come in second, with an increase from 28 percent in 2016 to 33 percent in 2018. Radio held fairly steady with a one-point increase, from 25 percent to 26 percent. Print newspapers — which slid from 20 percent to 16 percent — trail behind the pack.
But those numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, because when the ages of the survey respondents are taken into account, it becomes apparent that the younger the people, the more likely they are to look to social media for their news. In fact, those 18 to 29 eschew print newspapers (a mere two percent), radio (13 percent), and television (16 percent) in favor of news websites (27 percent) and social media (a whopping 36 percent).
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