Fully 46% of internet users post original photos and videos online they have created themselves and 41% curate photos and videos they find elsewhere on the internet and post on image-sharing sites. Women are more likely than men to use Pinterest, while Instagram and Tumblr attract equal shares of men and women.

A nationally representative phone survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that:

• 46% of adult internet users post original photos or videos online that they themselves have created. We call them creators.
• 41% of adult internet users take photos or videos that they have found online and repost them on sites designed for sharing images with many people. We call them curators.
• Overall, 56% of internet users do at least one of the creating or curating activities we studied and 32% of internet users do both creating and curating activities.

In addition, this is the first time that the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has asked questions about Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr.

Lesley Lanir: Why do you think people are turning to YouTube for News videos?

Amy Mitchell: The YouTube platform offers a new form of video journalism. Individuals can bear witness to events in a new and powerful way. As with other social and web-based media it also allows people to watch these moments on their own agenda, and to share them with others.

LL: Are you surprised at the type of news videos being viewed?

AM: There is a wide variety of videos in the mix of most viewed across these 15 months. In some cases they are major international events that were also covered heavily in the mainstream media. But in other cases, they demonstrate the way that as in blogs and other social media more obscure events can quickly gather massive interest. One element that was rather consistent was the event be centered around events rather than people – which supports the idea of bearing witness to events. Fully 65% of the videos studied did not feature any one individual.

LL: Are you surprised at the types of videos available, the quality, etc.

AM: One finding that stood out was the complex interplay between citizens and news organizations. All stages of the process — capture, production, posting — the data show both citizens and news organizations involved in different ways depending on the video and the news events. There is also a solid mix of raw footage and edited, with citizens and news organizations offering a mix of both.

LL: Do you think adding a video enhances interest and pumps up views no matter what the news story?

AM: It is unwise to make vast generalizations like that. Certainly certain events are more visually oriented than others and there are hundreds and thousands of videos that attract very few viewers. That said, more and more, producers of information are thinking about a multi-media approach, using all four methods of consuming information: visual, audio, text-based and graphical.

LL: Do you think more people in the future would rather watch videos than news on TV?

AM: Again, I would prefer not to answer such general questions like that. Network news offers something different than videos on YouTube and there are still somewhere around 20 million people watching network evening news daily.

More online Americans are using video-sharing sites– and they are doing so more frequently. As of May 2011, 71% of online adults reported watching videos on a video-sharing site such as YouTube or Vimeo. A demographic portrait of these site users is in the table below.

That represents a five-percentage-point increase from the 66% of online adults who reported being video-sharing site users a year earlier and a 38-point increase from five years ago when the Pew Internet Project took its first reading on use of such sites.

Moreover, the use of video-sharing sites on any given day also jumped five percentage points. In our May 2001 survey, 28% of online Americans said they had gone to such sites “yesterday,” compared with 23% who had reported using video-sharing sites “yesterday” — or on a typical day in May 2010.

Rural internet users are now just as likely as urban and suburban users to have sampled video at video-sharing sites

Rural internet users are now just as likely as users in urban and suburban areas to have used these sites. Some 68% of rural internet users have gone to such sites, compared with 71% of online suburbanites and 72% of online urban residents. Those are statistically insignificant differences and show that since 2009, online rural residents have caught up to others in using these sites.

At the same time, rural internet users are still less likely to be visiting video-sharing sites on a typical day (14% vs. 31% and 33% for suburban and urban residents, respectively).

Non-whites are more likely to use video-sharing sites

Another notable and persistent trend is that non-white adult internet users have higher rates of video-sharing site use than their white counterparts, a consistent finding since 2006.1

Overall, 69% of white internet users said they had visited video-sharing sites, 13 points higher than in April 2009, and more than double the 31% reported when the question was first asked in December 2006.2 At the same time, 79% of online non-whites — African-Americans, Hispanics and others — reported using video-sharing sites. That figure is 12 points higher than April 2009, and 41 points higher than in 2006.

Parents use video-sharing sites more than non-parents

Some 81% of parents in the survey reported visiting video-sharing sites, compared with 61% of the non-parents. Parental use increased nine points from 72% in May 2010, while non-parental use dipped slightly from the 63% reported in the same survey.3 This increase might also be attributable to the fact that parents with minors at home are younger as a group than the non-parents cohort and use of video-sharing sites is linked to younger users.

Higher use of video-sharing sites coincides with the explosion of content on YouTube, including videos produced by amateurs

The rise in use of video-sharing sites is at least partly being driven by the growth in content on sites like YouTube and by user contributions. The rise in use of video-sharing sites is at least partly being driven by the growth in content on sites like YouTube and by user contributions, which then possibly encourage site visits by contributors’ friends and others who pass around links about popular amateur videos. The latest statistics from YouTube are that 48 hours of content are uploaded every minute to the site and the range of contributions is striking. YouTube lists 28 different categories for channels of video that are contributed and dozens of subcategories ranging from automobiles and gaming, to activism and politics.

Read the survey methodology and topline findings at pewinternet.org.

_{1. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, Nov. 30 — Dec. 30, 2006 December Tracking Survey, available on pewinternet.org’s data sets page.
2 The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, June 18 – 21, 2009 Online Video Usage Survey.
3 The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, April 29 – May 30, 2010 Spring Change Assessment Survey, available on pewinternet.org’s data sets page.}

Overview

Almost a fifth of American adults (19%) have tried video calling either online or via their cell phones. That figure comes from adding up the number of adults who said they either had made a video or teleconferencing call online (17% of adults have done that) or made video calls on their cell phones (6% of adults have done that). In many cases people have placed video calls on both the internet and their cell phone. Those who answered yes to both questions were only counted once in the overall tally of video callers.

These figures translate into 23% of internet users and 7% of cell phone owners who have participated in video calls, chats, or teleconferences.

These figures were gathered in a survey of 3,001 American adults (ages 18 and older) between Aug. 9 and Sept. 13, 2010. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.

This is the first survey of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project that has covered both online and cell-phone video calls, so there are no prior comparable data to show how much the activity is increasing. In the internet realm, video calling has risen modestly from 20% of internet users in April 2009 to 23% of internet users in the summer 2010 survey. On any given day, 4% of internet users are participating in video calls, video chat or teleconferencing, up from 2% in April 2009.

Some of the key findings in the most recent survey related to online video calls, which are conducted by 23% of the adults who are internet users.

• Video calling online is especially appealing to upscale users. A third of internet users (34%) living in households earning $75,000 or more have participated in such calls or chats, compared with 18% of those earning less than $75,000.
• Younger internet users are considerably more likely to conduct video calls. Some 29% of the internet users ages 18-29 have participated in video calls or chats or teleconferences, compared with 15% of internet users ages 65 or older.
• Online men are more likely than online women to participate in online video calls (26% vs. 20%).
• Urban internet users (27%) and suburban users (23%) are significantly more likely than rural users (12%) to have participated in video calls, chats or teleconferences.
• On a typical day, 4% of internet users participate in video calls, chats or teleconferences. That is a uptick from the Pew Internet Project’s April 2009 survey, when 2% of internet users reported participating in online video exchanges.

Some of the key findings in the most recent survey related to video calls on cell phones, which are conducted by 7% of the adults who cell phone owners.

• Cell-owning blacks are more likely than whites to participate in video calls, chats or teleconferences (10% vs. 5%).
• Those in upper-income households are more likely than others to participate in video calls (10% of cell owners in households earning over $75,000 participate in such calls, compared with 6% who live in households earning less than $75,000).
• Cell owners younger than age 50 are more likely than those older than age 50 to have participated in such video calls (8% vs. 4%).

Background

Video calling has become increasingly available as camcorders have spread through the online environment, cameras have been built into smart phones, and as video-chat services like Skype, Google Talk and Apple iChat have become a feature of the online and smart-phone environment. Teleconferencing is also becoming more embedded in the business environment.

This summer, in a nationally-representative telephone survey using landlines and cell phones, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Project asked for the first time about the prevalence of video calling both online and on cell phones.

The survey of 3,001 adults found that 74% of American adults are internet users and, among those internet users, 23% have participated in video calls, chats or teleconferences. The survey also found that 85% of American adults have cell phones and, among those cell owners, 7% have used their phones for video calls, chats, or teleconferences. Overall, that means that 18% of Americans have either used the internet or their cell phone to participate in video calls — and in many cases, people have used both technologies for video chats.

Internet-based Video Calls, Chats, Teleconferences

In April 2009, the Pew Internet Project asked internet users about video calls and found at the time that 20% of them had participated in such calls. So, there has been a slight uptick in the number of Americans who use the internet for video calling — from 20% in April 2009 to 23% in the summer 2010 survey. The Pew Internet Project’s survey also asked people if they had participated in such calls “yesterday” and the surveys show that the percentage of video callers online on any given day rose from 2% in April 2009 to 4% in the summer of 2010.

The following table gives a breakdown of the demographic differences among internet users when it comes to video calling, chatting or teleconferencing.

Cell Phone Use for Video Calls, Chats, Teleconferences

For the first time, Pew Internet Project asked cell phone owners about video calls, chats and teleconferences and found that 7% of cell owners have taken advantage of that feature. Video activities are far less common than other cell features. For instance, in the same survey, Pew Internet found that 74% of cell owners use text messaging features, 39% use their phones to access the internet, 34% use them for email and 30% use them for instant messaging.

The following table gives a breakdown of the demographic differences among cell owners when it comes to video calling, chatting or teleconferencing.

Find the full report as well as descriptions of the survey methodology, sample characteristics and topline questionnaire at pewinternet.org.

Summary of Findings

Seven-in-ten adult internet users (69%) — or roughly half (52%) of all U.S. adults — have used the internet to watch or download video. Young adult internet users, 18-29 year-olds, continue to be the heaviest consumers of online video.

Between 2007 and 2009, there were dramatic increases in the number of Americans who watch the following kinds of videos online:

• Comedy or humorous videos, which rose in viewership from 31% to 50% of adult internet users.
• Educational videos, which rose in viewership from 22% to 38% of adult internet users.
• Movies or television show videos, which rose in viewership from 16% to 32% of adult internet users.
• Political videos, which rose in viewership from 15% to 30% of adult internet users.

Viewership of other types of online video also rose in the same timeframe. The spread of broadband, the increased use of social networking and status-update sites like Facebook and Twitter, the popularity of video-sharing sites like YouTube, and the embrace of video features by untold numbers of websites, have all contributed to the surge in online video watching.

Among online video watchers, 8% have connected their computer to their television so they can watch online video on a television screen. This represents 5% of all internet users, which is slightly lower than the 8% of internet users who were watching online video on their television screens in an April 2009 Pew Internet survey. One-in-ten video watchers (10%), or 7% of all internet users, have paid to watch or download a video. In 2007, 4% of internet users had paid to access or download video online.

On the other side of the camera, the 2009 survey found that 14% of internet users have uploaded a video to the internet so others can watch or download it. That figure is almost double the 8% of internet users who were uploading video in 2007. Women are now just as likely as men to upload and share videos, and social networking sites such as Facebook are as popular as video-sharing sites such as YouTube as locations for video uploading.

Among video uploaders, there is considerable variation in terms of whom they share their videos with, who they believe is watching and concerns about how their video may be used. One-in-three uploaders (31%) say they “always” place restrictions on who can access their videos, while 50% say they “never” do this. The remaining 19% fall somewhere in the middle.

Asked about their experiences in sharing videos online, uploaders expressed these views:

• 41% agreed they have been surprised by the number of people who watch their videos.
• 39% agreed that no one other than their family or friends will watch the videos they post.
• 35% agreed they sometimes feel they should be more careful about the videos they post.
• 28% agreed that sharing videos online helped them meet new people.

These figures were gathered in a survey of 763 internet-using adults between June 18 and June 21, 2009. The margin of error is +/- 4.5 percentage points for results based on adult internet users.

Read the full report at pewinternet.org.

Over time, online video has become more deeply integrated into daily life and has started to move into the spaces that are typically reserved for traditional television viewing. Overall, 19% of internet users say they use video-sharing sites on a typical day. In comparison, just 8% of internet users reported use of the sites on a typical day in 2006.

Broadband connectivity has helped to set the stage for high-quality viewing experiences and broaden the appeal of online-video content. Fully 63% of American adults now have high-speed connections running to their homes. Among broadband users, 69% watch video on sharing sites, and 23% do so on a typical day.

Television and movie watching are now an online experience for a third of internet users.

While much of the content on video-sharing sites is user-generated, a growing archive of professional content is also available through YouTube and newer network-sponsored video portals like Hulu. Efforts to lure viewers to these portals appear to be paying off, as more than a third of internet users (35%) now say they have viewed a television show or movie online. In comparison, just 16% of internet users said they had watched or downloaded movies or TV shows when asked a similar question in 2007.¹

As internet users become accustomed to regular on-demand video viewing online, many are choosing to watch from the comfort of their couch. Among those who watch TV shows or movies online, 23% say they have connected their computer to a television screen so they could view video from the internet on their TV. That amounts to roughly 8% of all internet users.

These findings, which come from an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, illustrate the pervasiveness of online video and mark an important moment in the evolution of America’s television and movie-viewing habits.

The use of video-sharing sites currently outranks many other headline-snatching internet pastimes among American adults. Watching online videos on sites like YouTube is more prevalent than the use of social networking sites (46% of adult internet users are active on such sites), podcast downloading (19% of internet users do this) and the use of status updating sites like Twitter (11% of internet users do this).

And online video viewing has grown across all age groups.Young adults continue to lead the adoption curve in online video viewing. Nine-in-ten internet users ages 18-29 use video-sharing sites, up from 72% one year ago. On a typical day in 2009, 36% of young-adult internet users watched video on these sites, compared with just 30% in 2008. Online adults ages 30-49 also showed big gains over the past year; 67% now use video-sharing sites, up from 57% in 2008.

Online video viewing is still far from being the norm among internet users ages 50 and older, however, this segment of the internet audience continues to grow each year. Among internet users ages 50-64, 41% now say they watch video on sites like YouTube, which is up from 34% in 2008. Likewise, 27% of wired seniors ages 65 and older now access video on these sites, compared with just 19% who were doing so at this time last year.

Over the past year, the share of online women who visit video-sharing sites has grown substantially — from 46% in 2008 to 59% in the latest survey. That compares with 57% of male internet users who reported online video viewing in 2008 and 65% in 2009. On a typical day, online men are still more likely to have watched a video on sites like YouTube; 23% now report doing so compared with just 15% of online women. The latest survey found that there are now no significant differences across income or education groups when looking at the use of video-sharing sites.

Those with wireless connectivity show more engagement with online video portals. Wireless connectivity has emerged as a strong predictor of online video viewing. Fully 71% of those with wireless connectivity watch videos on video-sharing sites compared with just 38% of those who do not access the internet wirelessly. Cell phone manufacturers have recognized the consumer demand for both mobile video viewing and video recording. In one recent example, the latest version of the iPhone comes with video recording capability and a feature that allows users to upload those videos to YouTube through a simple voice command.

While some video viewers are moving to bigger screens, there is also growing interest in mobile video viewing. Our latest data show that 14% of cell phone users have watched video on their devices, slightly up from the 10% we found in 2007. Cell phone users are more likely to record video on their cell phones than they are to watch it; 19% of cell phone users now say they have recorded video with their phone.

Beyond funny YouTube clips, most young adults have moved some of their television and movie watching online. While video sharing sites like YouTube generally feature short clips and a plethora of user-generated content, many users are turning to the internet to watch entire television shows and movies. Overall, 35% of adult internet users say they have watched television shows and movies online. Again, young adults lead the way, as 61% of internet users ages 18-29 say they watch TV shows and movies online. That compares with 32% of those ages 30-49, 22% of users ages 50-64 and just 11% of internet users ages 65 and older.

On a typical day, the same trend emerges: 16% of young adult internet users say they watch TV and movies online, compared with just 6% of those ages 30-49, 2% of the 50-64 group and 1% of wired seniors.

Men are the ones who take the next step to connect the computer to the television screen. Among those who have watched television shows and movies online, 23% have taken the next step to connect their computer to their TV screen to watch online video from the comfort of their couch. Online men are almost twice as likely to rearrange the living room in this regard; 29% of male viewers who watch TV and movies online have connected their computer to the television screen, compared with just 16% of online women.

Americans who have cut back on cable or TV expenses are more likely to watch online video on their televisions.

As stated in the Pew Internet Project’s “Home Broadband Adoption 2009” report, overall, 22% of American adults say they have cut back on their cable or television services over the course of the past 12 months. That compares to just 9% who have cut back on their internet service. Those who have canceled or cut back on cable and TV services are more likely to have “rerouted” their online video viewing to their television screen. Among this economizing group of online video viewers, 32% have connected their computer to their TV screen to watch internet video.

Read the full report at pewinternet.org

_{1. The February 2007 question wording asks, “We’d like to know if you ever use the internet to watch or download the following kinds of video…Do you ever watch or download movies or TV shows?” The April 2009 question wording asks, “Please tell me if you ever use the internet to do any of the following things…. Do you ever use the internet to watch a television show or movie online?”}

As gadgets with digital audio capability proliferate, podcast downloading continues to increase. Currently, 19% of all internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they could listen to it or view it later. This most recent percentage is up from 12% of internet users who reported downloading podcasts in our August 2006 survey and 7% in our February-April 2006 survey.

Still, podcasting has yet to become a fixture in the everyday lives of internet users, as very few internet users download podcasts on a typical day. Even of those who say they download podcasts, just 17% do so on a typical day.

These results come from a nationally-representative telephone survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project from April 8 – May 11, 2008 of 2,251 adults. The portion of the survey that covered podcast downloading was administered to 1,553 internet users. The margin of error on the internet sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

More Options for Podcast Downloaders

As demand for podcasts has grown, so too has the catalog of offerings for users. In November 2006, we reported that Podcast Alley, a popular podcast directory, cataloged over 26,000 podcasts with more than 1 million episodes.¹ Now, that number has nearly doubled to over 43,000 podcasts and well over 2 million episodes. The most extensive podcast genre is “technology” with over 4,000 podcasts available on the subject; this genre is followed closely by comedy, religion and spirituality, and business.²

Companies like iTunes regularly prompt users to subscribe to automatic daily downloads of their favorite podcasts.³ “Get podcasts, served fresh daily,” reads an advertisement on the iTunes Store podcast webpage. Instead of getting your morning newspaper delivered to your doorstep, you can get your daily podcast delivered to your iTunes desktop. (For instance, users can subscribe to daily podcasts of newspapers and magazines such as The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.)

College campuses have also served an important role in promoting podcasts. Many colleges and universities now provide podcasts of various lecture series and important speakers on campus. Some professors are experimenting with podcasts in other ways, such as producing their own podcasts or having their students respond to readings and lessons by creating podcasts rather than (or in addition to) traditional papers.

Who is Downloading Podcasts?

Men continue to be more likely than women to download podcasts; 22% of online men compared with just 16% of online women report ever having downloaded a podcast. However, men and women are equally likely (3%) to download podcasts on a typical day.

Age differences are more defined with regard to podcast downloading than they were in 2006 when all age groups, except for those 65 and older, were almost equally likely to download podcasts. Now, the dividing line is around the age of 50, with internet users under 50 years old significantly more likely than older users to download podcasts. Fully 23% of those under 50 say they have ever downloaded a podcast and 4% downloaded one yesterday, compared with 13% and 1% of their older counterparts. Since 2006, younger generations have more fully embraced the technology, their percentages nearly doubling since 2006.

Internet users with six or more years of internet experience are significantly more likely than those with less online experience to have ever downloaded a podcast, and they are also more likely to download podcasts on a typical day.

Broadband Access and Podcast Downloading

In a recent report on broadband adoption, we found that internet users who have broadband internet access at home are significantly more likely than those who have dial-up to have ever done certain online activities.⁴ In many cases, those with high-speed internet access at home are also significantly more likely than dial-up users to do these activities on a typical day. Over time, podcast downloading has been a key activity that internet users are much more likely to do if they have broadband access. Internet users who subscribe to premium home broadband services are even more likely to download podcasts.

Internet users with broadband and premium broadband access at home are also significantly more likely than the average internet user to have ever downloaded a podcast.

iPod and MP3 Player Ownership

Like podcast downloading, ownership of iPods and MP3 players has also increased since 2006. According to a December 2007 Pew Internet Project survey, 34% of American adults and 43% of internet users report owning an iPod or MP3 player, up from 20% of the total population and 26% of internet users in April 2006.

Young adults between 18 and 29 years old are the age group most likely to own MP3 players, 61% of whom own these gadgets. Parents, those with broadband access, and those with higher socio-economic status (higher income and education) are also considerably more likely to own MP3 players or iPods.

Notes

¹ “Podcast Downloading” (Pew Internet & American Life Project, November 22, 2006)

² Site statistics accessed on July 17, 2008 via the Podcast Alley website. Genre-specific statistics

³ Information found on July 17, 2008 on the iTunes store website podcast page.

⁴ “Broadband Adoption 2008” (Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 2008)