Social media have played an important role in how many people access the news over the past decade. The networks people use and the way in which social networks showcase news have, however, changed considerably during that time, as existing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube evolved both in terms of how they work and who uses them, and newer networks such as Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have grown in importance.
In this chapter, we aim to cast light on the ever-changing news environment on social media by setting out the differences between networks and what social media news users say their motivation is for accessing news on these platforms, and who they say they pay the most attention to. Our analysis relies on both our survey and data from our focus groups, and concentrates on the six largest open social networks measured in terms of weekly use across all 46 markets: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Of these, we pay particular attention to newer platforms with a younger user base – Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat – as much less is known about news usage on these networks..
Full article: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021/how-and-why-do-consumers-access-news-social-media
