10 facts about the changing digital news landscape
Digital news continues to evolve, pushed by a variety of recent innovations. Here are 10 key findings that show how these shifts are reshaping Americans’ news habits.
Journalism
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More than half of smartphone users get news alerts, but few get them often
More than half of U.S. smartphone users say they get push notifications on their phones’ screens, but only about half of those who ever get these alerts click through to the full story.
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House seats rarely flip from one party to the other
Big partisan shifts in the House of Representatives happen, but not often. In only three of the past 12 election cycles has one party posted a net gain of more than 30 seats, and on average 93% of House members who seek re-election are voted back into office.
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Newspaper companies lag behind their broadcast siblings after spinoffs
An analysis of the spinoffs shows that the broadcasting components of the original companies (which also retained many digital properties) have mostly outperformed their publishing counterparts in terms of operating profit margins.
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Split-ticket districts, once common, are now rare
In 2012, only 26 House districts out of 435 chose one party’s presidential nominee and the other party’s candidate for the House.
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The growing Democratic domination of nation’s largest counties
In 2008, Barack Obama won 88 of the 100 largest U.S. counties; four years later he won 86 of them. The last time a Republican presidential candidate won more than a third of the 100 biggest counties was 1988.
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Candidates’ social media outpaces their websites and emails as an online campaign news source
A quarter of U.S. adults (24%) turn to social media posts from either the Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump campaigns as a way of keeping up with the election, while 10% turn to their websites and 9% turn to emails.
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More minority federal judges have been appointed under Democratic than Republican presidents
Since 1945, Democratic presidents have appointed three times as many black judges, and also more Hispanic and Asian judges, to the federal bench as their Republican counterparts.
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Election 2016: Campaigns as a Direct Source of News
Today’s presidential candidates are increasingly prioritizing social media outreach, while the role of campaign websites is shifting.
