News Platforms & Sources

Nearly as many U.S. adults prefer to get local news online as through a TV set. And while Americans prize community connection from their local news providers, they are largely unaware of the financial challenges they face.

One-in-five U.S. adults often get news via social media, slightly higher than the 16% who often do so from print newspapers.

An analysis of Youtube videos suggested by the site's recommendation engine finds that users are directed toward progressively longer and more popular content

About two-thirds of Americans have heard about social media bots. Many are concerned that bots are used maliciously and negatively affect how well-informed Americans are about current events.

Western Europeans have a clear preference for television as a source of news. And while use of online and radio outlets for news is also widespread, print trails the other formats.

Most Americans continue to get news on social media, even though many have concerns about its accuracy.

Around half of U.S. adults who use Facebook say they do not understand why certain posts but not others are included in their news feed. Older users are particularly likely to say they do not understand the workings of the news feed.

Newspaper layoffs have far from abated in the past year, and digital-native news outlets are also suffering losses. At least 36% of the largest U.S. newspapers and at least 23% of the highest-traffic digital-native news outlets experienced layoffs between January 2017 and April 2018.

About eight-in-ten Twitter users who tweeted about immigration with a link in the first month of the Trump presidency shared at least one tweet that had a link to a news site.