OCTOBER 2, 2019
Americans Are Wary of the Role Social
Media Sites Play in Delivering the News
Getting
news from social media is an increasingly common experience; nearly
three-in-ten U.S. adults do so often
As heated
debate continues over how social media sites can improve the quality of news on
their platforms while enforcing rules fairly, most Americans are pessimistic
about these efforts and are highly concerned about several issues when it comes
to social media and news.
Majorities
say that social media companies have too much control over the news on their
sites, and that the role social media companies play in delivering the news on
their sites results in a worse mix of news for users. At the same time, social
media is now a part of the news diet of an increasingly large share of the U.S.
population.
These findings are based on
a survey conducted July 8-21, 2019, among 5,107 U.S. adults who are members of
Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel. The study also examines Americans’
perceptions of the biggest problems when it comes to social media and news, the
political slant of news posts they see on social media, and which sites they go
to for news.
Almost
all Americans – about nine-in-ten (88%) – recognize that social media companies
have at least some control over the mix of news people see. And most Americans
feel this is a problem: About six-in-ten (62%) say social media companies have
too much control over the mix of news that people see on their sites, roughly
four times as many as say that they don’t have enough control (15%). Just 21%
say that social media companies have the right amount of control over the news
people see.
The largest social media platforms control the content on their
feeds using computer
algorithms that rank and prioritize posts and other content tailored
to the interests of each user. These sites allow users to customize
these settings, though previous research has found that many Americans feel
uncertain about why certain posts appear in their news feed on
Facebook specifically. Social media companies have also been public about their
efforts to fight both false information and fake accounts on their sites.
While social media companies say
these efforts are meant to make the news experience on their sites better
for everyone, most Americans think they just make things worse. A majority
(55%) say that the role social media companies play in delivering the news on
their sites results in a worse mix of news. Only a small share (15%) say it
results in a better mix of news, while about three-in-ten (28%) think their
efforts make no real difference.
While most Americans are
pessimistic about the control social media companies have over the news people
see, Republicans tend to be more negative than Democrats. Three-quarters of
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say social media companies have
too much control over the mix of news that people see, compared with about half
(53%) of Democrats and Democratic leaners. More Republicans (66%) than
Democrats (49%) also say that these efforts result in a worse mix of news for
users.
A large majority of
Americans believe that social media companies favor some news organizations
over others. About eight-in-ten U.S. adults (82%) say social media sites treat
some news organizations differently than others, about five times the share
saying all news organizations are treated the same (16%).
Social media companies do have established policies when it comes
to publishers, including prioritizing certain
news sources, banning or limiting others that produce lower-quality content, and using their
monetization policies to discourage particular
behaviors.
Among
those U.S. adults who say social media companies treat some news organizations
differently than others, there is broad agreement that they favor three types:
those that produce attention-grabbing articles (88%), those with a high number
of social media followers (84%) and those whose coverage has a certain
political stance (79%).
While large social media companies have announced initiatives to favor high-quality news publishers in
an effort to improve the news on their sites, fewer who say some news
organizations are treated differently believe social media companies favor
organizations that are well-established (56%), have high reporting standards
(34%) or have politically neutral coverage (18%).
Americans are most
concerned about biased and inaccurate news on social media; many say the news
content they see leans left
Many people – including President Donald Trump – have voiced
concerns about social media companies potentially censoring the news that
people see, whether by hiding posts or by banning specific users.
But in spite of the public discussion around potential
censorship and efforts to monitor it, Americans are
more concerned with the overall low quality of news available on social media
sites. Of the seven issues asked about, about half of U.S. adults say that
one-sided news (53%) and inaccurate news (51%) are very big problems when it
comes to news on social media. Fewer say that censorship of the news (35%) or
news organizations or personalities being banned (24%) are very big problems.
As large majorities say that the tone of American political debate has become more negative in
recent years, about a third of U.S. adults (35%) say that uncivil discussions
about the news are a very big problem when it comes to news on social media.
Additionally, about a quarter (27%) say that the harassment of journalists is a
very big problem associated with news on social media.
Republicans
and Democrats disagree somewhat about which issues on social media are very big
problems, especially when it comes to censorship and harassment. Republicans
and Republican leaners are more likely to see censorship of the news as a very
big problem on social media (43%) than Democrats and Democratic leaners (30%).
Democrats, on the other hand, are about twice as likely as Republicans to say
that harassment of journalists is a very big problem (36% vs. 17%). Despite
these differences, one-sided news and inaccurate news top the list among both
Republicans and Democrats.
Many Americans also say
that the news posts they see on social media tend to lean to the left
ideologically. Nearly half of social media news consumers (48%) describe the
posts about news they see there as liberal or very liberal. A much smaller
share – 14% – say the news posts they see are conservative or very
conservative, while 36% say the news they see is moderate.
Republicans
are more likely to see a liberal lean than Democrats, a plurality of whom
describe the news on social media as moderate. Among social media news
consumers, Republicans are more likely to say that the news they see leans
liberal or very liberal (64%) than are Democrats (37%). And social media news
consumers who are conservative Republicans are especially likely to say that
the news leans left: 73% describe the news posts they see as liberal or very
liberal.
Share of Americans
who get news on social media has recently increased
Getting
news from social media sites is an increasingly common experience. More than
half of U.S. adults get news from social media often or sometimes (55%), up
from 47% in 2018. About three-in-ten Americans now get news on social media
often (28%), up from 20% in 2018.
Facebook
is far and away the social media site Americans use most commonly for news.
About half (52%) of all U.S. adults get news there.
The next
most popular social media site for news is YouTube (28% of adults get news
there), followed by Twitter (17%) and Instagram (14%). A number of other social
media platforms (including LinkedIn, Reddit and Snapchat) have smaller news
audiences.
Even though news on
Facebook reaches the most Americans, other sites have similarly large portions
of their users getting news on their platforms.
Along
with Facebook, Twitter and Reddit stand out as the sites where the highest
proportion of users get news – 73% of Facebook’s users do so, as do 71% of
Twitter’s and 62% of Reddit’s users. However, because Facebook’s overall pool
of users is much larger than those of Twitter or Reddit, far more Americans
overall get news on Facebook than on the other two sites.
The other sites studied – including YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn,
Snapchat, Tumblr, WhatsApp and Twitch – have less of a news focus among their
users. Fewer than half of the users on each of these sites use the site for
news. Only a small share of users of Twitch – a livestreaming website – say they get news
on this platform (10%).
The
makeup of social media sites’ news users differs considerably from one site to
the next. For example, white adults make up more than half of news users on
Reddit (65%), Facebook (61%), Twitter (58%) and LinkedIn (58%), while there are
more nonwhite news users on Snapchat and Instagram. (For most sites, black and
Hispanic adults are about equally likely to get news there, but Hispanic adults
are twice as likely as black adults to use Snapchat – 36% vs. 18% – and three
times as likely to use Reddit, 15% vs. 5%.) Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram
have a higher proportion of women among their news users, while YouTube and
Reddit news users are more likely to be men. And about seven-in-ten (69%) of
Snapchat’s news consumers are ages 18 to 29, more than any other site.
Pagination
Source:
SEPTEMBER
16, 2019
Profiles of social media news consumers in the U.S.
next
No comments:
Post a Comment