Social Media Becomes More Popular Than Print Papers, Says Pew study

A new study from the Pew Research Center shows an unexpected finding on the way people get information. Accordingly, there is an increasing number of people using social media service as a news source instead of traditional print newspapers.

The rise of social media has led to a decline in other news sources. One highlight of this study is that it is the first time social media has overtaken print papers. When the number of people reading traditional newspapers is continuously decreasing, there are more billions of people using social media as a means for them to get information.

Also, according to the research, news sources from other media such as radio, news websites, television still rank higher than social media. This is clearly shown in the following data of Pew:

Looking at the figures, it is easy to see the rise of Internet-based sources, social media and news websites. Meanwhile, there has been a reduction or a steadiness in print, TV, and radio trends.

Another finding in the study is that there is a difference in the way people at different ages get information. This result is based on a survey of American adults from 18 years old and above.

According to the figures, the traditional news sources like TV and newspaper are preferred by the older generations, while young people are interested in reading news on their smart devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Furthermore, as digital is more favored in the way people consume news, more actions need to be taken on online social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter due to the prevalence of fake news issues. They have to do their best to fight against misinformation. However, the problem of fake news is still increasing gradually.