News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017

As of August 2017, two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans report that they get at least some of their news on social media – with two-in-ten doing so often, according to a new survey from Pew Research Center. This is a modest increase since early 2016, when (during the height of the presidential primaries) 62 percent of US adults reported getting news from social media. While a small increase overall, this growth is driven by more substantial increases among Americans who are older, less educated, and nonwhite. For the first time in the Center’s surveys, more than half (55 percent) of Americans ages 50 or older report getting news on social media sites. That is 10 percentage points higher than the 45 percent who said so in 2016. Those under 50, meanwhile, remain more likely than their elders to get news from these sites (78 percent do, unchanged from 2016).