I remember way back when I was a kid (good Lord that line alone makes me old) we would watch the 5:00 news before dinner and the 10:00 news before bed. That’s how we stayed up to date on current events and what was happening in the world around us. Fast forward to 2015 and a new study says that more Americans are consuming their news from Facebook and Twitter, 63% to be exact. Pew Research says that in 2013 the percentages of Americans using Facebook and Twitter for news was 37% so it’s a significant increase.
According to Pew, Twitter is still king when it comes to breaking news, taking 59% of the user base while Facebook took 31%. Facebook and Twitter still link to the actual article to the website it originated from but Facebook is testing a new service called “Instant Articles”.
In case you’re wondering, the Instant Articles is a platform that serves articles and other news content directly to users using Facebook’s own database. Facebook’s partners like The New York Times and BuzzFeed have agreed to publish new articles directly using Facebook’s servers, in exchange, Facebook has agreed to revenue split from advertisements delivered alongside the content.
Facebook is essentially trying to become a one stop shop for its users offering social media, news, instant article and probably more to come. This could prove to be some real competition for Google if users elect to use Facebook for most everything they do. There has been rumors that Google was seeking to acquire Twitter which would give the company new footing in the social media market but those rumors have no feet beneath them yet.
What do you think of Facebook and Twitter as a source for news? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
[button link=”http://stgist.com/2015/07/people-get-news-from-facebook-twitter-pew-study-3893″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: STGist[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
