Social Media

A snapshot of the profiles of the different types of communities studied.

Depending on the topic, urban residents are more likely to use mobile and online sources; suburbanites are most heavily into social media; and rural residents are more inclined to word of mouth sources

Lee Rainie described the new media ecology and how “networked individuals” get, share and create information.

46% of internet users post original photos & videos online; 41% curate photos & videos they find elsewhere on the web and post on image-sharing sites. Women are more likely than men to use Pinterest; Instagram & Tumblr attract equal shares of both.

Aaron Smith will share the Pew Internet Project’s most recent data on the constantly shifting digital ecosystem in the U.S. and highlight some major trends that have emerged since the project’s inception in 1999.

Campaign and policy-related material on SNS plays a modest role in influencing most users' views & political activities. Democrats & liberals are the most likely to say the sites have impact and are important.

On the eve of the conventions, Barack Obama holds a distinct advantage over Mitt Romney in the way his campaign is using digital technology to communicate directly with voters. The Obama campaign is posting almost four times as much content and is active on nearly twice as many platforms, according to a new study analyzing the content and volume of candidate communications on their websites and social media channels.

Amy Mitchell, Deputy Director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, answers questions about PEJ's report on the emergence of YouTube as a major platform for viewing news.

The conversation on Twitter about the Penn State scandal has shifted focus over the last month from the man convicted of sexual abuse to the school and then to the NCAA. But one constant in the conversation has not budged—views of Joe Paterno.

While most news videos posted to YouTube by individuals are made up of raw footage, news organizations post primarily edited videos.