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Digital news has become an important part of Americans’ news media diets, with social media playing a crucial role in news consumption. Today, half of U.S. adults get news at least sometimes from social media.
When it comes to where Americans regularly get news on social media, Facebook outpaces all other social media sites. Roughly a third of U.S. adults (31%) say they regularly get news from Facebook.
A quarter of U.S. adults regularly get news from YouTube, while smaller shares get news from Twitter (14%), Instagram (13%), TikTok (10%) or Reddit (8%). Fewer Americans regularly get news from LinkedIn (4%), Snapchat (4%), Nextdoor (4%), WhatsApp (3%) or Twitch (1%).
When looking at the proportion of each social media site’s users who regularly get news there, some sites stand out as having a greater portion of users turning to the site for news even if their total audience is relatively small. For example, while Twitter is used by about three-in-ten U.S. adults (27%), about half of its users (53%) turn to the site to regularly get news there. On the other hand, roughly the same share of adults (31%) use LinkedIn, but only 13% of its users regularly get news on the site.
In many cases, there are demographic differences between the people who turn to each social media site regularly for news. On several of the social media sites we asked about, adults under 30 make up the largest share of those who regularly get news on the site. For example, half or more of regular news consumers on Snapchat (67%), TikTok (52%) and Reddit (50%) are ages 18 to 29. Additionally, women make up a greater portion of regular news consumers on Facebook, while the opposite is true for sites like Twitter and Reddit.
Some partisan differences also arise when it comes to who regularly gets news on some social media sites. The majority of regular news consumers on many sites are Democrats or lean Democratic. No social media site included here has regular news consumers who are more likely to be Republicans or lean Republican. (See Appendix for data on U.S. adults in each demographic group who regularly get news from each social media site.)
CORRECTION: (Sept. 23, 2022): The charts in this fact sheet were updated to correct an error in the stated field dates for the data’s underlying survey. The updated text should read: “Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted July 18 – Aug. 21, 2022.” These changes do not affect the fact sheet’s overall findings.
This fact sheet was compiled by Research Assistant Jacob Liedke and Associate Director Katerina Eva Matsa.
Read the methodology and the topline.
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest report in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Follow these links for more in-depth analysis of news consumption:
News Platform Fact Sheet, Sept. 20, 2022.
Nearly a quarter of Americans get news from podcasts, Feb. 15, 2022
Attention to COVID-19 news increased slightly amid omicron surge; partisans differ in views about the outbreak, Jan. 27, 2022
News on Twitter: Consumed by Most Users and Trusted by Many, Nov. 15, 2021
Americans who relied most on Trump for COVID-19 news among least likely to be vaccinated, Sept. 23, 2021
About four-in-ten Americans say social media is an important way of following COVID-19 vaccine news, Aug. 24, 2021
How Americans Navigated the News in 2020: A Tumultuous Year in Review, Feb. 22, 2021
More than eight-in-ten Americans get news from digital devices, Jan. 12, 2021
Measuring News Consumption in a Digital Era, Dec. 8, 2020
Many Americans Get News on YouTube, Where News Organizations and Independent Producers Thrive Side by Side, Sept. 28, 2020
Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable, July 30, 2020
Read all reports and short reads related to news platforms and sources.
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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.