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Many Americans rely social media for news

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in General Factchecking by
The Pew Research Center article titled "News Consumption Across Social Media in 2021" explains how Americans consume news on various social media platforms. It reveals that while a big portion of U.S. adults still get their news from social media, this trend has slightly declined compared to previous years. Facebook remains the most popular platform for news, followed by YouTube and Twitter, with younger users increasingly turning to Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat for news. Despite the frequent use of social media for news, the accuracy of information on these platforms is low. Most users consume news in short clips or snippets, rarely looking for in-depth analysis or other viewpoints, which can contribute to the spread of misinformation.
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/09/20/news-consumption-across-social-media-in-2021/
by Newbie (200 points)
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After reading the article posted from the person with the claim, "Many Americans rely on social media for news," I have concluded that it is in fact true that many Americans get their news from social media. However, the accuracy of the information provided isn't reliable. As social media is biased and very opinionated, it is so easy to misinformation as well as disinformation. From the article, "The majority of regular news consumers of many sites are Democrats or lean Democratic. This may be related to the relatively young age profile of the news consumer base of these social media sites. No social media site included here has regular news consumers who are more likely to be Republican or lean Republican." (Walker, Matsa 2024). This tells you that political differences could be based off where you get your information from. Since social media doesn't only specialize in just news or politics, it isn't the right source to get knowledge from as it is biased and made to be personalized with each user's creation.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/09/20/news-consumption-across-social-media-in-2021/
by Newbie (240 points)
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You did a good job finding reliable research to support your claim that people's different sources of information could cause political differences. It is valuable that you reported that a large number of consumers of news sites lean left, as this provides further context into which demographic primarily finds their news from social media and its inherent consequences. However, I question whether your statement of social media not being the "right source to get knowledge" due to its biases may be too generalized. While it is true that a majority of the content of social media includes biases, some creators on these platforms may have a more objective and neutral stance on the news.
by Newbie (200 points)
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I agree that Americans rely on social media to get their news. I like how you added  sources and links to articles that have research embedded in them. I enjoyed how you also ranked the most popular to least popular platform that is used for news consumption.
by Newbie (230 points)
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Good points. It might also be worth considering whether younger users are looking for more in depth news elsewhere, or just relying on short snippets from social media.
by Newbie (300 points)
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Your claim and evidence is very supportive, and it is both trustworthy and reliable. One thing to add would be a more recent survey, as the usage of social media within our populations has risen heavily. You could use the exact same source, but this more recent survey from September 2024, where the article states, "Overall, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years."
by Newbie (280 points)
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This was an incredibly informative fact check one of the most interesting takeaways I've seen from the study is the decline in overall use of social media for news showing a growing skepticism of the information that's being presented in the media. It also shows how people are now moving to social media for news like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook which I found interesting and in my personal experience true. The article highlights the out-of-touch and alternative viewpoints of media that users on social media have taken and how it can increase the spread of missed information. This was a very interesting fact check and is true
by Newbie (300 points)
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I 100% agree with this fact-check. I think news, especially with the new generations, is looked at through different social media apps nowadays. I know for myself, I only see the news or maybe look at some through Instagram or TikTok. Adding on, the older generations are all still using Facebook for the news, while the newer ones have flipped over to TikTok. I like how you got straight to the point with an immense amount of detail and used great sources at the same time for different opinions. I also agree that many people just see short clips of news all the time and they might be of a particular frame which will give off misinformation based off of that clip that they are seeing and no context behind it.
by Newbie (230 points)
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Although this is a thorough fact-check with reliable sources used, I would argue that you exhibit some bias in your assessment of the Pew study. Although it is factual that social media has become a significant source of information for Americans, I do not agree that it is necessarily true that the information on social media is inherently false or biased as this can change based on the source.

32 Answers

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ago by Newbie (310 points)

The claim that many Americans rely on social media for news is a correct statement. Pew Research is one of the leading research and survey websites in the world and is known to be a credible source. The article demonstrates numerous real-life graphs that confirm the claim. The claim although somewhat vague, comes down to percentages. Pew Research found that 47 percent of Facebook users, use the app as their main source of news. That number easily surpasses the claim that many Americans do in fact use social media as a means for news. 

PBS also wrote an article about this claim and stated that 20 percent use social media as their sole news source. Based on these two articles from highly established websites, it can be concluded that the claim is true.

Article : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/about-20-of-americans-get-their-news-from-social-media-influencers-report-finds

True
0 like 0 dislike
ago by Newbie (300 points)

This claim is true, many Americans do rely on social media for news. Social media sites are becoming more and more prevalent in our day to day lives. According to a study from the Pew Research Center, "just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media," in 2024. This is a rise from recent years, and is expected to continue to climb. In the same publication, Pew Research Center finds that 52% of TikTok users regularly use the platform to get the news in 2024, up from 22% in 2020.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/

True
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