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The Pew centre also offers some interesting results regarding the effects of Social Media and our consumption of news.

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The Pew centre also offers some interesting results regarding the effects of Social Media and our consumption of news.

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The ever-growing digital native news world now boasts about 5,000 digital news sector jobs, according to our recent calculations, 3,000 of which are at 30 big digital-only news outlets. Many of these digital organizations emphasize the importance of social media in storytelling and engaging their audiences. As journalists gather for the annual Online News Association conference, here are answers to five questions about social media and the news.

1 How do social media sites stack up on news? When you take into account both the total reach of a site (the share of Americans who use it) and the proportion of users who get news on the site, Facebook is the obvious news powerhouse among the social media sites. Roughly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults use the site, and half of those users get news there - amounting to 30% of the general population.

YouTube is the next biggest social news pathway - about half of Americans use the site, and a fifth of them get news there, which translates to 10% of the adult population and puts the site on par with Twitter. Twitter reaches 16% of Americans and half of those users say they get news there, or 8% of Americans. And although only 3% of the U.S. population use reddit, for those that do, getting news there is a major draw-62% have gotten news from the site.

2 How do social media users participate in news? Half of social network site users have shared news stories, images or videos , and nearly as many (46%) have discussed a news issue or event. In addition to sharing news on social media, a small number are also covering the news themselves, by posting photos or videos of news events. Pew Research found that in 2014, 14% of social media users posted their own photos of news events to a social networking site, while 12% had posted videos. This practice has played a role in a number of recent breaking news events, including the riots in Ferguson, Mo.

3 How do social media users discover news? Facebook is an important source of website referrals for many news outlets, but the users who arrive via Facebook spend far less time and consume far fewer pages than those who arrive directly. The same is true of users arriving by search. Our analysis of comScore data found visitors who go to a news media website directly spend roughly three times as long as those who wind up there through search or Facebook, and they view roughly five times as many pages per month. This higher level of engagement from direct visitors is evident whether a site's traffic is driven by search or social sharing and it has big implications for news organizations who are experimenting with digital subscriptions while endeavoring to build a loyal audience.

4 What's the news experience like on Facebook? Our study of news consumption on Facebook found Facebook users are experiencing a relatively diverse array of news stories on the site - roughly half of Facebook users regularly see six different topic areas. The most common news people see is entertainment news: 73% of Facebook users regularly see this kind of content on the site. Unlike Twitter, where a core function is the distribution of information as news breaks, Facebook is not yet a place many turn to for learning about breaking news. (Though the company may be trying to change that by tweaking its algorithm to make the posts appearing in newsfeed more timely.) Still, just 28% of Facebook news consumers ever use the site to keep up with a news event as it unfolds, less than half of those users would turn to Facebook first to follow breaking news.

5 How does social media impact the discussion of news events? Our recent survey revealed social media doesn't always facilitate conversation around the important issues of the day. In fact, we found people were less willing to discuss their opinion on the Snowden-NSA story on social media than they were in person. And Facebook and Twitter users were less likely to want to share their opinions in many face-to-face settings, especially if they felt their social audience disagreed with them.

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The ever-growing digital native news world now boasts about 5,000 digital news sector jobs, according to our recent calculations, 3,000 of which are at 30 big digital-only news outlets. Many of these digital organizations emphasize the importance of social media in storytelling and engaging their audiences.

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Here is an interesting website ClickZ which gives some interesting stats and data related to how we now use social media to access news for more than traditional platforms  like newspapers and mainstream broadcast networks.

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Here is an interesting website ClickZ which gives some interesting stats and data related to how we now use social media to access news for more than traditional platforms  like newspapers and mainstream broadcast networks.

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News consumption has changed over the years as more people turn to social media to be updated for the latest news. How does this trend affect the online publishing industry?
Reuters Institute has released its Digital News Report for 2016 and it has been confirmed that more and more people prefer consuming content through social networks, with the younger generations significantly contributing to this rise.

64% of people aged 18-24 said they rely on online media for their information, and 28% became more specific, picking social media among all the online options.

Social media as the main source of news for each country

Not every country shares the same preference on consuming the news through social media, with Greece, Turkey and Brazil being the ones that pick social media more than any other source.

There's an average of 46% of Europeans using social media for news, although people in UK (35%) and Germany (31%) are not very close to the adoption rate that Greece, Portugal and Ireland have.

Why Facebook wins in news consumption

Facebook is the most popular social network for news consumption, with Youtube following it closely, while Twitter is way behind, despite its instant and news-led nature.

This can be justified by the fact that people spend more time on Facebook daily, which means that they end up consuming more news stories while browsing their news feeds.

Twitter for example could have the potential of increasing its status in the online news consumption, but it still hasn't managed to maintain a consistent engagement among users.

Video news consumption still has a long way to go

There may be a significant increase of video content on social media, but apparently online news video is growing more slowly than what we probably expected. Only 24% of respondents among 26 countries answered that they accessed an online news video during a particular week.

News video consumption seems to be the highest in the United States (33%), with the European countries staying behind with an average of 22% among the participants.

This can be justified by the big US publishers who heavily focused on video content lately and despite the slow growth, we expect this number to rise in the next years, so there's no need to panic if you've just included video content in your content strategy.

How often do we visit a site's homepage?

Do you remember the last time you visited a site's homepage (without being led to it in any way)? As our browsing habits change, publishers should understand that this is not necessarily bad for their site's traffic, as it can be compensated with further clicks through SEO and social traffic.

As news consumption is moving to social media, homepages become less important for readers. This doesn't mean that a publisher should completely abandon the site's homepage, but it's ok to accept that the traffic is directed differently nowadays.

How smartphone usage affects news consumption

There is a consistent increase of smartphone usage during the past years and according to Reuters 53% of its sample uses a smartphone to access news, with Sweden (69%), Korea (66%), and Switzerland (61%) noting the highest levels of usage.

A smartphone can be convenient for news updates, as many users access it on the go, while social media is a popular destination many times during the day. That's why 19% of those who use smartphone as their main device claims to access news more than five times a day.

There's a combination of F.O.M.O and addiction to content consumption which forms the modern reader, especially the younger generation, although the news consumption through social media may affect the broad scope of the topic, favouring personalisation over objectivity.

It's the addictive nature of the smartphone that makes most of us access it first thing in the morning and hence, that's where we access the news of the day.

It's interesting to compare how UK and US differ in the first news source they use on a smartphone. British people tend to rely to a large extent on a news website or an app when accessing their first news source, while Americans prefer to the same percentage (48%) social media for the news coverage.

Why people use news social media along with news aggregators

Facebook may be the primary source for online news consumption, but news aggregators are also present, especially in Asia and partly in Europe.

Apple News and Flipboard are the most popular options all over the world, with people turning to news aggregators mostly to stay up-to-date with the latest news, while having an abundance of sources to find the right angle for every story. It's a quick way to discover the breaking news, while they don't seem to be engaging, as they don't always offer an easy way to share a story.

This frequently leads to a mix of social media and news aggregators, creating a well-rounded online reader who wants to blend immediacy with interaction.

How news consumption through social media affects brands

Publishers start losing the control of the distribution and the consumption of the news and this creates a further confusion regarding their strategy. Do they stay loyal to their old tactics, or should they surrender to the brand new world?

It's always a better idea to blend old and new tactics to achieve the desired result, which is usually the traffic and the engagement to the site.

There's a growing concern with the domination of social media and news aggregators regarding the brand recognition, as not every reader notices the actual brand during the news consumption. Brand recognition may be strong in Finland (60%) and Germany (55%), but it's way behind in Australia (36%), or in Ireland (33%).

The stats are even lower in Japan and Korea while using news aggregators, which makes publishers wonder how this will eventually affect their branding, their exposure and of course, their income.

How news consumption is further changing

Facebook may be the primary source for readers who want to stay up-to-date during the day, but this doesn't mean that other platforms can be useful. Snapchat is appealing to more and more people the past year and the engagement among the younger audience is impressive.

As for the news consumption, Snapchat may be behind in most countries with minimal avid news junkies, but this does not occur in U.S., as 12% of people aged 18-24 use Snapchat Discover for news consumption.

If this still doesn't sound convincing for a publisher to join Snapchat for content creation, then consider the fact that Buzzfeed's Snapchat presence takes more than 20% of its total traffic, while Cosmopolitan numbers more than 3 million views daily from its content on Snapchat.

As times change, publishers are becoming ready to embrace a new digital world, in an attempt to keep up with the latest trends, being where their readers are. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or any other platform, there's always a need for the right strategy that will make the brand mention memorable, while increasing the engagement with the audience.

Tereza Litsa is a Writer at ClickZ.

Related reading

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How news consumption changed with social media

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News consumption has changed over the years as more people turn to social media to be updated for the latest news. How does this trend affect the online publishing industry? Reuters Institute has released its Digital News Report for 2016 and it has been confirmed that more and more people prefer consuming content through social networks, with the younger generations significantly contributing to this rise.

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Here is a TED talk by Clay Shirkey which sets out his main arguments for the transformational effect of social media on public news consumption

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Here is a TED talk by Clay Shirkey which sets out his main arguments for the transformational effect of social media on public news consumption

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Please [contact us](https://www.ted.com/contact) and let us know what happened.

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According to Clay Shirkey there has been a huge transitional change in how we, that is YOU, access current news information. We are no longer dependent on professional news providers, broadcasters like, CNN, Sky, BBC et al are being supplanted by individuals on social media. Here is a Power Point that explores some of the issues surrounding how e-media and social media has changed everything

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According to Clay Shirkey there has been a huge transitional change in how we, that is YOU, access current news information. We are no longer dependent on professional news providers, broadcasters like, CNN, Sky, BBC et al are being supplanted by individuals on social media. Here is a Power Point that explores some of the issues surrounding how e-media and social media has changed everything

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A focus on various theories and commentators on digital media. Plus a surprise Andy Warhol slide. Contains tios for incorporating theory into Media Studies ess...