Traditional news organizations have been making a larger presence on Twitter lately, some with multiple accounts, each for the different sections of the news they cover. I myself follow about a dozen news organizations and twice as many independent journalists. But I’ll be the first to admit that Twitter is not usually my go-to source for news – and that seems to be the case with the majority of Americans, too. According to the latest Pew study, only 3% of Americans use Twitter regularly or sometimes to get their news. Find out where they do get their news below the jump.
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released survey results earlier this week entitled Americans Spending More Time Following the News. As you can gather from the title of the report, Americans are consuming more news now than in previous Pew studies – but Twitter, despite what CNN quoting obscure Twitter names might indicate, is not one of the reigning causes of this spike in news consumption.
The internet in general is one of the main gateways that Americans use to access the news. According to the survey, 57% of Americans regularly use at least one online source for news. But it’s not necessarily through their social networks. The primary source of news for Americans are search engines, with one third using them three or more days a week to find news.
After email, RSS readers, blogs, and even smartphones comes social networks, with 19% of the public regularly or sometimes using social networking sites for news, and only 3% using Twitter. This might have something to do with how many Americans report actually having a Twitter account. 45% have a social networking site in general, but only 9% name Twitter in their list.
Taking a look a bit deeper, the study shows that among Twitter users, 17% regularly get news from Twitter but only 6% regularly tweet news themselves. This means they are getting news from more official sources like the New York Times or the Washington Post Twitter streams, and are less likely to re-tweet than we think.
Twitter still has a way to go before it can be called serious competition for more traditional methods of news consumption. Maybe part of the reason for the low numbers is the lack of real monetization that Twitter offers, de-incentivising news outlets from really innovating on the platform. Or maybe Americans still see Twitter – even verified news organizations’ Twitter accounts – as less legitimate than traditional media.
Are you part of the 3% who does get their news from Twitter?
