Exploring The Role of Social Media in News Consumption

Abstract

The amount of time spent by the world population on social media (SM) continues to grow, with 20% of our PC time and 30% of our mobile time now spent on SM. In addition to sharing personal information, SM users increasingly post links to external content and express their opinions about the world, national and local news. In fact, in the past two years, the traffic to news sites from various SM grew 57%. As this trend is expected to continue, a number of questions regarding the role of SM in democratic societies acquire prominence. Given the length of time spent by SM users with their friend circles that are likely to reflect their own political and cultural views, there is a concern that the exposure to alternative and challenging views can be limited. The phenomenon of “social filtering” may have major implications not only for news, but also for product and brand information and consumption. Better understanding the role of SM in contemporary information consumption can inform not only the competitive strategies of news organizations and offer guidelines for internet policy makers, but can also assist content marketing efforts by advertisers. This pilot study attempts to initiate an academic discussion of the role of social media in news consumption. The data and interpretations were derived from 112 interviews with a cross-section of news consumers in the Midwest. The following questions were asked: “How do you receive your personal, local, national and world news? Please describe the role of newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, email, online search, and other communication media in your news consumption; Please describe the role of Facebook, Twitter and other social media that you use in getting your news and information. Compare the importance of the social media to other media for your news consumption.” Each interview lasted for 15-20 minutes, and the transcripts were subsequently analyzed by each author separately, with differences resolved through discussion. Data analysis consisted of identifying emerging themes by noticing instances and patterns of responses. The majority of respondents preceded their answers with a general statement about their attitude to news that was subsequently used to substantiate their descriptions of the preferred media channels and news consumption behavioral patterns. From these attitudinal responses, it was possible to discern a continuum of attitudes towards the news that affect the news consumers’ behaviors, from deliberate news avoidance and news indifference to active news seeking and distribution. An important issue highlighted by the study is news content personalization. Active news seekers carefully select the topics they want to follow, the news organizations they want to be updated on, and the personalities they want to hear from. This functionality is best performed by mobile apps, as well as social media, which provide timeliness and convenience important for those who want to be current and “in the know”. Similarly, those who are selectively interested in sports, celebrity news, and local events, customize their free email portals (MSN, Yahoo etc.) to be effortlessly exposed only to the information they may be willing to receive. SM can also serve as a surrogate filtering tool by exposing uninvolved SM users only to the content approved by their trusted friends and/or like-minded others (again limiting the exposure to diverse views, opinions and facts). This feature of digital information distribution may present a potential problem of limiting the exposure to diverse opinions and only provide the confirmation of pre-existing views. It may contribute to the “filter bubble” phenomenon and mitigate potential advantages of digital communication channels to expose citizens to diverse views. Contrary to popular assertions that SM have become a news gateway, the majority of our respondents deny its defining role in their news consumption. While deliberate news seekers utilize Twitter updates as one of their news sources, they limit the updates they get to certain news providers, and get them regularly: they do not rely on incidental and serendipitous “stumbling upon” information as it is usually presented in SM. Both types of news consumers believe that Facebook functionality predisposes it to be more a discussion and opinion forum than an objective news reporting vehicle. Therefore, its use combines news consumption with social networking to arrive at “social news consumption” experience whereas one can see what their friends read, talk about and are interested in. Based on our findings, interesting questions that deserve further attention include the role of socio-economic (education, income, occupation), demographic (age, sex, marital status), and/or political (or religious) characteristics in amplifying or mitigating SM-based information filtering. Another interesting issue is potential differences in filtering effects between SM that limit the number of friends and exposures by requiring reciprocal relationships (e.g. Facebook and LinkedIn) and those with open, non-reciprocal following (Twitter).