Facebook Still Rules the Social Media Roost - Rob Horowitz

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Rob Horowitz, MINDSETTER™

 

View Larger +

As social media companies enter a more uncertain future, facing an interrelated set of vexing problems, such as how to grapple with the spread of falsehoods and disinformation, how to prevent their sites from being used to organize domestic terrorism, the belief of many conservatives that they selectively enforce policies in a way that discriminates against people on the right, and the prospect of increased government regulation stemming from all these difficulties, they remain a pervasive source of news and information for the American public.

More than half of US Adults say they get news from social media “often or sometimes,” according to a recently released Pew Research Center poll.  Facebook continues to rule the roost with 36% of American adults getting news from the site on a regular basis.  Nearly 7-in-10 American adults are Facebook users.

Another widely used site for all purposes, YouTube is the second most used social media site for news with 23% of American adults—nearly 1-in-4-- getting news there at least some of the time.  Twitter comes next with 15% of adults getting news from the site at least some of the time.   A high percentage of Twitter users consume news on the site, but Twitter has much smaller reach over-all than either Facebook or YouTube; only 1-in-4 American adults are Twitter users.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

“About one-in-ten Americans or fewer report regularly getting news on Instagram (11%), Reddit (6%), Snapchat (4%), LinkedIn (4%), TikTok (3%), WhatsApp (3%), Tumblr (1%) and Twitch (1%),” the Pew Research poll documents.

Americans remain skeptical of the news they get from social media. Nearly 6-in-10 who get any news at all on social media ‘expect it to be largely inaccurate.”   This level of skepticism has remained relatively constant over the past two years or so. 

Similarly, most Americans do not believe that the news they receive on social media provides much help in understanding current events: “47%, say it doesn’t make much of a difference, while 29% say that it has helped their understanding and 23% say it has actually left them more confused.”  This sentiment is also not new; it has remained fairly constant over the past couple of years as well, according to Pew.

Americans’ dissatisfaction with the news they consume on social media reflects the broader distrust of media over-all.  After all, most of the news people consume on social media sites originate in the same cable television networks, newspapers and online venues that together comprise our over-all media system.  Because of how social media algorithms work, however, our tendency to seek out mainly the news that confirms what we already believe is compounded as information that amplifies our beliefs--no matter how inaccurate it may be--fills our social media news feeds.

Providing Americans with more accurate news and information as well as exposing everyone to a broad range of views--ones that challenge existing beliefs, not just confirming existing biases-- is an essential component of repairing and renewing our democracy. Given the pervasiveness of social media as a source of news, as documented by the Pew poll, improving these platforms as news providers is a major component of the challenging task ahead.

View Larger +

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.

 

Related Articles

 

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

 
 

Sign Up for the Daily Eblast

I want to follow on Twitter

I want to Like on Facebook