Social Networks Play a Major Part in How We Get News [STATS]

The latest study from Pew Internet analyzes the news Americans are consuming and various different ways they find news. Based on a sample of 2,259 adults, the study reveals that three fourths of the people (75%) who find news online get it either forwarded through e-mail or posts on social networking sites, and half of them (52%) forward the news through those means.

This translates to a large portion of all Americans. According to the report, 59% of those surveyed get news from a combination of online and offline sources.

However, the study also shows that very few people nowadays (7%) are getting information from a single media platform. In fact, nearly half of Americans (46%) claim they get news from four to six media platforms on a typical day. And while TV is still the biggest source of news (78% of Americans say they get news from a local TV station), Internet sits at second place (61% of users get news online), ahead of radio and newspapers. Interestingly enough, relatively few people -- only 17% -- claim they read news in a national newspaper such as The New York Times or USA Today.

Also interesting is the division between news consumers according to their relationship to news. Thirty-three percent of cellphone owners now access news on their phones, and 28% use personalized news, meaning they have a customized page that includes news from sources they've chosen. Perhaps most importantly, news consumers today participate in the creation of news; 37% have contributed to news creation, commented on news or shared it via social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

The entire report is available here.