More Facebook and Twitter users in the United States are turning to social media sites to get their news, a study released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation shows.
About 63 percent of Facebook and Twitter users consumed news on the sites in 2015, up from 47 percent and 52 percent, respectively, compared to 2013.
In the United States, about 10 percent of adults consumed news on Twitter, and 41 percent get news on Facebook, according to a March survey of 2,035 adults.
With more people using social media sites to read news stories and follow events, Facebook and Twitter have also been rolling out features to feed the increasing appetite for news consumption. Facebook in May partnered with nine media outlets to directly publish their articles on the social network. Meanwhile, Twitter purchased a live video-streaming app Periscope this year and is working on a new feature, dubbed Project Lightning, aimed at making it easier to follow events on the site.
As social networking sites recognize and adapt to their role in the news environment, each will offer unique features, said Amy Mitchell, Pew Research Center s Director of Journalism Research in a statement.
People on Twitter and Facebook also use the sites differently to consume news, the study found.
More people use Twitter to follow breaking news while a higher percentage of Facebook users are more likely to discuss politics on the social network.
Twitter users also get a greater variety of news compared to Facebook users, the survey showed. They re also more likely to see news about national government and politics, international affairs, business and sports.
The Pew Research Center breaks down the news topics Facebook and Twitter users see in this chart:
Photo Credit: Dominic Lipinski/Associated Press
