☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Biden bypasses traditional media, announces withdrawal from race on social media
- New from Pew Research Center: How Americans get news about local politics
- In other news: U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich convicted in Russian trial
- Looking ahead: NBC partnering with Google to use AI in coverage of Paris Olympics
- Chart of the week: Americans who feel attached to their community are more interested in local election news
🔥 Featured story
Over the weekend, President Joe Biden announced his departure from the 2024 presidential race via simultaneous posts on a few social media sites. His post on X (formerly Twitter) has gotten particular attention as an example of public figures choosing social media as a way to bypass the media and directly share news.
A majority of X users (65%) say getting news is a reason they use the site, making it the only social media platform out of four we studied in detail this year where that is the case. Similarly, 59% of X users say keeping up with politics or political issues is a reason they use X – again much higher than the shares of users who say this about TikTok, Facebook or Instagram.
In addition, X stands out as a place to see breaking news: 75% of users say they ever see information about breaking news in real time there, compared with smaller shares of users on Facebook (58%), TikTok (55%) and Instagram (44%).
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
A new Pew Research Center report looks at how Americans get news and information about local government and politics. Key findings include:
- Most Americans are interested in news and information about local government and politics. About two-thirds say they often or sometimes get local political news.
- Among these local political news consumers, only a quarter are highly satisfied with the quality of coverage. And fewer than half of Americans overall say it is easy to find the information they need to make voting decisions in local elections.
- There is virtually no difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to their consumption of and attitudes toward local political news.
This report, the second in a series focused on local news, is part of the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
📌 In other news
- U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich convicted of espionage in a Russian trial that’s been described as sham
- Murdochs battle over future of media empire in court
- LA County Sheriff’s Department secretly investigated and urged the prosecution of reporter for the Los Angeles Times
- EU recommends that Italy introduce more safeguards for journalists against lawsuits and alleged “intimidation”
- Former Biden anti-disinformation official loses defamation lawsuit against Fox News
- BBC to lay off 500 more staff by spring 2026 after annual report shows financial woes
- A look at how a local one-man news site scooped the national media on reports about the Trump assassination attempt
📅 Looking ahead
Google has launched new partnerships with NBC and Team USA to integrate artificial intelligence into coverage of the upcoming Paris Olympics. Technology has already changed the way the event is covered, as NBC now uses its subscription streaming service, Peacock, and other digital platforms to supplement coverage on NBC and other TV networks.
Americans increasingly rely on digital paths to get news. Most U.S. adults (58%) now prefer to get news in general from digital devices such as smartphones, computers or tablets, according to a 2023 Center survey. The portion of Americans who prefer to get their news from TV has dropped to 27%.
Back in 2012, television was the leading platform for coverage of the London Olympics, according to a Center study conducted that year. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) said they watched coverage of the 2012 Olympics on television, compared with just 17% who said they had watched online or digitally. And 12% reported that they had followed Olympic coverage on social networking sites.
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart, from our recent report on Americans’ experiences with local political news, looks at the connection between community attachment and perceptions of news about local government and politics. People who feel more attached to their community have more interest in news about local laws and local elections, higher satisfaction with the quality of their local political news, and an easier time finding the information they need to vote.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by Rebecca Leppert.
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