Social Media & the News

Around half of U.S. adults who use Facebook say they do not understand why certain posts but not others are included in their news feed. Older users are particularly likely to say they do not understand the workings of the news feed.

About eight-in-ten Twitter users who tweeted about immigration with a link in the first month of the Trump presidency shared at least one tweet that had a link to a news site.

On Twitter, suspected bots are far more active in sharing links to news sites focusing on nonpolitical content than to sites with a political focus.

U.S. adults are mostly against government action that could limit people’s ability to access and publish information online. There is more support for steps by technology companies.

Read key findings and watch a video about our new study on how bot accounts affect the mix of content on Twitter.

An estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings.

An analysis of 9.7 million tweets reveals that news organizations played the largest role in which content was linked to in discussions about immigration compared with other information providers.

The most ideological members of Congress shared news stories on their Facebook pages more than twice as often as moderate legislators between Jan. 2, 2015, and July 20, 2017, according to a new Pew Research Center study that examined all official Facebook posts created by members of Congress in this period. The analysis included links […]

A global median of 75% want their news media to be unbiased when covering political issues, yet many say the news media do a poor job of reporting on political issues fairly.

The U.S. has more foreign students enrolled in its colleges and universities than any other country in the world. Explore data about foreign students in the U.S. higher education system.