by Katie Daly
Social media sites have surpassed print newspapers as a news source in the United States, with about One-in-five adults saying they often get news via social media. According to a Pew Research Center report in 2018, people getting their news via social media was higher than the ones who often do so from print. It was a 4% difference with 16 percent of people reporting they often get news from papers compared to 20 percent who say they often get news from online media sources.
It is no secret that print is struggling whilst at the same time digital media is flourishing, which has caused an impact on the circulation of newspapers. According to a Global data platform called statista, the circulation figures for daily newspapers in the United States reveal that USA Today distributed the most papers as of January 2019, with a daily circulation of over 1.62 million, but also showed that all daily newspapers in the top ten ranking have seen a large decrease in circulation since 2017.
Much of what is discussed in social media is inspired by events in the news and, vice versa. Social media has provided us with a way to watch News in a quick and easy way. This is through systems like Facebook Twitter, Instagram and many more. According to Facebook itself it’s the most used social network in the United States, with 169.76 million users accessing the Facebook app. Plus, the company’s other properties such as Instagram and Facebook Messenger which holds the second and third highest with 121 and 106 million users, respectively.
According to recent findings from DataReportal, which has reported that In October 2020 over 98 percent of active user of accounts worldwide accessed the social network via any kind of mobile phone. This means the majority of adults using social media are on Facebook, and the user base is growing. Facebook is still a popular social media platform and now is easier to use.
However, the amount of U.S. adults who say they use certain online platforms or apps is statistically unchanged from where it stood in early 2018 despite a long stretch of controversies over privacy, and the fake news debacle, according to a new Pew Research Center Survey, conducted in 2019. The steady growth in adoption that social platforms have experienced in the United States is slowing. Despite that information the rise of social media has changed the information landscape in plenty of ways, including the manner in which many people keep up with current events.
The concern over the impact that social media companies have on our daily news is a touchy subject depending on the person you talk to. According to a study by Forbes, Republicans tend to be more negative about the role social media is playing as a means of news delivery. About 75 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said social medias have too much control to the news people see, compared to the 53 percent Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, Who didn’t really have an opinion on the issue.
According to the New York Times, Older adults are particularly vulnerable to misinformation on social media. People are worried that News on social media might become a danger because what is passing for News is often time misinformation or outright propaganda. Nowadays, a project from Poynter Institute called MediaWise for Seniors, offered free lessons to combat false information someone might see online according to the New York Times.
Data Journalism 395 