Facebook has become a primary source of news for many Americans, surpassing traditional news aggregators. A recent Pew study found that 41% of Americans get most of their news about national and international issues from the Internet, a 17% increase from the previous year. As the leading referrer of traffic to news sites, Facebook is influencing how people consume and share news stories and media online. The researchers presented data on how Facebook users of different ages, genders, and interests link to different types and topics of news content on the social media platform.

1. Friends who Choose Your News
Brian Baresch ,University of Texas at Austin | @editer
Lewis Knight, UT Austin
Dustin Harp, Ph.D., UT Austin
Carolyn Yaschur, UT Austin

2. “If the news is that important, it will find
me”

3. In Pew’s recent State of the Media report,
41% of Americans cited the Internet as the
place where they got “most of their news
about national and international issues”;
this cohort is 17% larger than a year
earlier.

4. Ink economy Link economy

5. Facebook has become the leading
referrer for visits to news and
media sites, ahead of the
aggregator Google Reader, and
is fourth overall behind Google search,
Yahoo and MSN.

6. How many link how much
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
#oflinksin3months(max15)

7. Linkers by age
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
18-24 25-34 35-54 55-plus
#inagegroup

8. Link genres
0
5
10
15
20
25
General interest News Products Commentary Satire/comedy Features Other
%oftotal

9. Link topics
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Current events Politics Health/tech Sports/art/ent Other
%oftotal

10. Genres by sex
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
General interest News Products Commentary Satire/comedy Features Other
%withingenres
women
men

11. Topics by sex
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Current events Politics Health/tech Sports/art/ent Other
%withintopics
women
men

12. Primary medium
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Text Photos Video Audio Interactive Other
%oftotal

13. Thank you
Brian Baresch, UT Austin
Lewis Knight, UT Austin
Dustin Harp, Ph.D., UT Austin
Carolyn Yaschur, UT Austin