More Americans are turning to multiple social media sites for news

Americans are more likely than ever to get news from multiple social media sites, according to a recent Pew Research Center report. About a quarter of all US adults (26%) get news from two or more social media sites, up from 15% in 2013 and 18% in 2016. But there is considerable variation in the extent to which each site’s news users get news from other sites, and which sites those are. Facebook claims the largest share of social media news consumers, and its news users are much more likely to rely solely on that site for news. Just under half (45%) of U.S. adults use Facebook for news. Half of Facebook’s news users get news from that social media site alone, with just one-in-five relying on three or more sites for news.

U.S. adults who get news from multiple social networking sites are more likely to be nonwhite and younger. About half (47%) of news consumers who rely on two or more social media sites for news are nonwhite (including Hispanics), compared with about one-fourth (26%) of those who use just one site. They are more likely to be under age 50: 77% are 18-49 compared with 56% of those who use just one site for news. Additionally, they are twice as likely to be ages 18-29 (37% vs. 18%).