Social media is now a common news source – and Americans don’t trust it

Almost twice as many Americans get their news online (38 percent) as get their news in print (20 percent), according to a new Pew study. As you might expect, the trend is most pronounced among young people, with 50 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds getting their news online, while only 5 percent get it from printed sources. Overall, TV remains the most common news medium.

What’s more, social media has become a significant source of online news – and most Americans don’t trust it. More than 60 percent of US adults get news from social media with 18 percent often doing so. Facebook leads the social media pack: 66 percent of uses get news from the site. That’s about 44 percent of the total population. But the same study found that only a third of Americans trust news from social media, compared to 82 percent for local news organizations and 76 percent for national news organizations.

Most people still stay informed through local, trusted news sources. But what does it mean for print news that young people aren’t reading it? What does it mean for our democracy that news from social media, a recent but increasingly popular medium for information, is the least trusted?

Link:

10 facts about the changing digital news landscape (Pew Research Center, Sept. 14, 2016)