Galen Stocking

In recent years, several new options have emerged in the social media universe, many of which explicitly present themselves as alternatives to more established social media platforms. Free speech ideals and heated political themes prevail on these sites, which draw praise from their users and skepticism from other Americans.

Fully 70% of U.S. adult Twitter news consumers say they have used Twitter to follow live news events, up from 59% who said this in 2015.

A new study of posts on popular public Facebook pages about the early days of the Biden administration finds that the focus of these posts, as well as the assessments of the new president, differed widely by the ideological orientation of the pages.

Videos from independent news producers are more likely to cover subjects negatively and discuss conspiracy theories.

Traffic to digital-native news sites has plateaued in recent years. After rising from 2014 to 2016, it remained steady through 2019.

In March 2020, about three-quarters (74%) of public Facebook posts about COVID-19 linked to news organizations, while just 1% linked to health and science sites.

Older adults tend to account for large shares of both poll workers and voters in general elections in the United States.

An exploration of more than 50 Pew Research Center surveys confirms the overwhelming impact party identification has on Americans’ trust in the news media. And divides emerge within party – particularly the Republican Party – based on how strongly people approve of Trump.

Researchers are learning more about early political socialization. Emerging techniques to fight misinformation are seeing some success.

Politicians viewed as major creators of it, but journalists seen as the ones who should fix it