Social media is the main way that youth (18-24) around the world discover news online, whereas older adults are more apt to directly access news stories, according to the Digital News Report 2018 [PDF] from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Fully 53% of young adults reported coming across news stories via social media, compared to one-third (34%) of adults ages 55 and older.
The study is based on a survey of more than 74,000 online news consumers across 37 countries. The results show that young adults tend to prioritize social media and search as gateways to online news stories at a greater rate than older adults, who instead are more apt to use email and direct access to come across news articles.
(New research indicates that Google search is a bigger referrer of traffic to online articles than Facebook in most categories.)
While Facebook is the leading social platform for news consumption in the US, it holds that position more as a result of its reach than to a heavy news consumption bias among its users.
In fact, Facebook use as a news source has declined in two-thirds of the 27 markets analyzed, per the study. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
The e-Strategy Academy covers all aspects of digital marketing including search optimization & marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, video marketing, mobile marketing & public relations.