It's Official: More Americans Get News From Social Media Than Print

Social media platforms are now outpacing print media as a news source, according to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center earlier this year.

The ongoing transition away from print media sources is playing out in a number of ways, but one stark trend is an uptick in US adults who get their news directly from social media, where there is a much higher chance of seeing inacccurate information, according to a study from Gallup and the Knight Foundation. Pew's survey found that 20 percent of Americans get their news from social media in 2018, up from 18 percent in 2016. Print media, on the other hand has declined from 20 percent to 16 percent over that timeframe.

Pew surveyed 3,425 US citizens who participated in the center's representative American Trends Panel. Television is still by far the most prominent news source for Americans, although it dropped from 57 percent to 49 percent from 2016 to 2018. Among the three different types of TV news polled in the survey, 37 percent of respondents said they often get news from local TV, followed by 30 percent who watch cable TV news and 25 percent who watch national evening network news shows.

Alongside print media's waning significance is the steady rise of online news websites, from which 33 percent of Americans now get their news compared with 28 percent in 2016. Radio has remained relatively steady, rising from 25 to 26 percent as a news source in the past two years.

Streaming is also playing a larger role, with 9 percent of US adults saying they often get news from a streaming device. Of that group, 74 percent said they also get news from broadcast or cable TV.

The stats get more interesting when broken down along demographic lines: Older Americans gravitate toward TV and print media, whereas younger respondents are more likely to get news from social media and news websites and less likely to rely on any one platform.

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Of US adults age 65 and older, 81 percent often get their news from TV, as do 65 percent of those ages 50 to 64. Around 40 percent of those ages 65 and older still get news from print media as well, compared to less than 18 percent for all other age groups. Conversely, Americans ages 18 to 29 are about four times as likely to often get news from social media as those 65 and older.

When it comes to news websites, there's a more nuanced breakdown. Forty-two percent of Americans age 30 to 49 often get news from websites and news apps, compared with 27 percent for those ages 18 to 29. For that youngest adult demographic, social media is the top news source at 36 perent, followed by news sites, then TV at 16 percent, radio at 13 percent, and print at 2 percent. More than half of adults in both the 18-to-29 and 30-to-49 age brackets said they consume news from a variety of different platforms.