1. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 1
Highly Engaged: A Quantitative Study of Facebook and News Usage in the
Pacific Islands region
Table of Contents
Abstract.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction..................................................................................................................2
Literature Review ........................................................................................................3
Methodology.................................................................................................................6
Results...........................................................................................................................7
Response rate .............................................................................................................7
Demographics ............................................................................................................7
Key findings...............................................................................................................8
Discussion ...................................................................................................................11
Problems with methodology ....................................................................................11
Comparison to original survey results .....................................................................12
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................13
Recommendations......................................................................................................14
References...................................................................................................................15
Bibliography...............................................................................................................18
Appendices..................................................................................................................20
Appendix 1: Facebook and News in the Pacific islands survey,
October 13–15 2015.........................................................................................20
Appendix 2: Pew Research Facebook News Survey
August 21-September 2, 2012..................................................................................27

2. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 2
Abstract
This research paper analyses how Pacific islands users of social media network
Facebook use the platform to get news. Limited research has been conducted on the
region’s Facebook audiences, despite being used by the majority of the region’s
rapidly growing social media users. The study is based on a quantitative survey
distributed in October 2015 to selected Pacific islands Facebook groups and is based
on an online survey conducted in the US in 2013 by the Pew Research Center. This
research builds knowledge about how Pacific islands users interact with news on
Facebook, finding much higher levels of engagement around news and news
organizations amongst Pacific islands users compared to the original US survey
population.
Introduction
Limited media audience research has been conducted in the Pacific islands region to
date. Research on social media audiences is even scarcer. While the research literature
situates social media network Facebook as an important online arena for engagement
and debate around social and political issues, little is known about how Pacific island
audiences use Facebook to get news. This paper attempts to address this knowledge
gap through a quantitative study of the role of Facebook for Pacific islands audiences
as a source of news.
This study is based on the results of a survey posted to selected Pacific islands
Facebook groups over a three-day period in October 2015. The survey was adapted
from the Pew Research Center’s ‘The Role of News on Facebook’ online
questionnaire (Pew Research Center 2013a), originally conducted in the US in 2013.
This paper will also compare how these two distinct audiences use Facebook to get
news.

3. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 3
Literature Review
The Pacific islands region is comprised of 22 nations and territories that are culturally
diverse, tiny in population, economically under-developed and scattered across an
area one-third of the world’s surface (Cave 2012, p. 3).
Little communications research has been undertaken in the Pacific islands region. The
only studies of the region’s media audiences to use quantitative research techniques
are mixed methods studies published by a regional media development program
(ButunaSmith Research Consultancy 2014, Debeljak & Bonnell 2012, Debeljak 2015,
Iliasov & Debeljak 2013, Thomas et al. 2012). To date, only audiences in Papua New
Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have been studied.
Internet penetration rates in the Pacific islands region are some of the lowest in the
world. The regional average, 28.8%, is below the global developing country average
of 32.4% (International Telecommunications Union 2015b). In the Pacific islands’
most populous country, Papua New Guinea, only 2.5% of the population of 7.5
million have access to the Internet (internetlivestats.com 2015).
Despite low Internet penetration, mobile subscriptions in the region have grown by an
annual average of 12.6% since 2009, a higher rate than both the global and the
developing country averages (GSMA Intelligence 2015, p. 2). Similarly, some of
Facebook’s largest growth markets on a per capita basis are Pacific countries (Cave
2012, p. 7). With more than 20% of the region’s population under 24 years old (Cave
2012, p. 3), the region’s youth ‘bulge’ is driving this growth in Internet and Facebook
penetration.
According to Facebook’s own figures, there are about 1.3 million active Facebook
users residing in the Pacific islands region (Table 1). The two largest Facebook
audiences in the region are Fiji with 370,000 users and PNG with 350,000 users
(Facebook 2015a).

4. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 4
Table 1. Pacific islands Facebook penetration rate (Facebook 2015a)1
Country/territory Facebook
users
Total population Facebook penetration
rate
Fiji 370,000 887,000 41.7%
Papua New Guinea 350,000 7,476,108 4.7%
New Caledonia 130,000 259,824 50.0%
French Polynesia 130,000 279,835 46.5%
Guam 100,000 167,546 59.7%
Samoa 54,000 191,831 28.2%
Tonga 40,000 105,782 37.8%
Solomon Islands 34,000 572,865 5.9%
Vanuatu 26,000 258,301 10.0%
Federated States of Micronesia 21,000 103,903 20.2%
Marshall Islands 18,000 52,772 34.1%
Palau 7,700 21,041 36.6%
Cook Islands 5,800 12,900 45.0%
Wallis & Futuna 3,600 13,419 26.8%
Kiribati 3,600 105,612 3.4%
Northern Marianas 2,600 45,447 5.7%
Nauru 2,200 10,486 21.0%
Tuvalu 2,100 10,124 20.7%
American Samoa 1,000 57,690 1.7%
Total: 1,300,600 10,632,486
Average: 26.3%
The average Facebook penetration rate for the region is 26.3%, compared to the
global Facebook penetration rate of 20.5% (Facebook 2015b). 180,000 or 51.4% of
Facebook users are under 24 years old in PNG, and 160,000 or 43.2% in Fiji. 41.9%
is the average for this age group across the whole region (Facebook 2015b).
Facebook is the leading social media network used in the Pacific islands region by a
substantial margin. According to independent web traffic analysis tool Statcounter
Global Stats (2015), Facebook is used by 90.5% of all social media network users in
the Pacific islands region (Figure 1 below).
1 Total Facebook users for Niue and Tokelau are not included in this table as Facebook (2015a) only gives a non-specific figure of <1,000.

5. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 5
Figure 1. Social media network use in Pacific islands region, Sept 2014 to Sept 2015
(Statcounter Global Stats 2015)
A modest amount of research has been conducted on social media in the region. The
main published sources have focused on the mobile-led digital ‘boom’ in the Pacific
islands region (Cave 2012) and the socio-economic effects of the rapid spread of
mobile telephony and Internet in the Pacific islands region (GSMA Intelligence 2015,
O’Connor et al. 2011, Watson 2014a, Watson 2014b).
Research specifically on Facebook in the Pacific islands region has looked at its role
in democratic deliberation in Melanesian countries (Cave 2012, Finau et al. 2014); in
social dissent (Tarai 2015, Tarai et al. 2015a) and election campaigning in Fiji (Tarai
et al. 2015b, Vakaoti & Mishra-Vakaoti 2015) and its role in politics in PNG (Logan
2012). Audience surveys undertaken in PNG and Vanuatu both report low levels of
trust for social media as a news source (Debeljak & Bonnell 2012, p. 32; Iliasov &
Debeljak 2013, p. 27).
Despite this, it is clear that social media is now well-established within the region as a
media platform. The region’s most recent audience survey (in PNG again) found that
use of social media, particularly Facebook, has increased considerably (Debeljak
2015, p. 11), even as levels of trust remain low (Debeljak 2015, p. 28). The survey
also found that Facebook is the most popular website for regular Internet users after
google.com, with 67% of all users visiting it at least weekly (Debeljak 2015, p. 46).
Facebook 90.5%
9.5%
Pinterest 5.0%
Twitter 1.5%
Tumblr 1.2%
reddit 0.5%
StumbleUpon 0.4%
Google+ 0.5%
YouTube 0.3%
LinkedIn 0.1%

6. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 6
Methodology
This study is a quantitative analysis based on a 30-question multiple-choice survey
(see Appendix 1 below) created in the online survey web application Typeform.com
(n.d.).
Typeform.com was chosen after an evaluation of two similar web applications,
SurveyMonkey.com (2015a) and Google Forms (2015), indicated that Typeform.com
had better cross-platform support across different devices. It also allowed for
conditional branching, enabling the survey to display the next question based on each
respondent’s response to the current question, reducing completion time and thereby
potentially increasing the response rate (SurveyMonkey n.d.).
The survey is a partial replication of Pew Research Center’s study ‘The Role of News
on Facebook’ (Mitchell et al. 2013; Pew Research Center 2013a; Pew Research
Center 2013c), an online multiple-choice survey of US Facebook users conducted in
2013 (see Appendix 2 below). The sample size of the Pew study was 5,173.
Four of the original 30 questions were omitted from the present study, as they were
not relevant. They were replaced with two questions to filter out respondents from
outside the region, plus an age and a gender question to allow for data disaggregation.
Q8 (‘Do you ever get news or news headlines on Facebook’?) screened out
respondents who do not use Facebook to get news. To enhance the completion rate,
respondents were required to answer all questions but could choose not to answer the
age and gender questions. Where appropriate, the choices offered within multiple-
choice questions were randomized to limit the effect of order bias.
Since users of the Facebook are the subject of this study, the survey was distributed
via Facebook. After researching membership numbers of Facebook groups aimed at
Pacific islanders, a list of 17 groups was compiled (Table 2 below). To maximize
response rate, the author requested membership of the Facebook groups, and if
granted, permission was then requested from administrators to post an invitation to
the survey. Administrators from 12 groups responded positively, and a post was made
to each of these groups. A request was also sent to the study author’s own Facebook

7. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 7
contacts from the Pacific islands. The survey was available on Typeform.com
between 13–15 October 2015.
Table 2. Facebook groups and contacts sent a link to the survey
Target audience Facebook group Facebook URL Reported
membership,
12/10/2015
Solomon Islands Forum Solomon Islands https://www.facebook.com/groups/ForumSolomonIslands/ 14,584
Papua New Guinea Paitim Garamaut https://www.facebook.com/groups/1380945465459453/ 9,181
PNG Think Tank https://www.facebook.com/groups/THINKTHANKPNG/ 5,235
Vanuatu Yumi Toktok Stret https://www.facebook.com/groups/yumitoktok/ 20,619
Vanuatu Womens’ Yumi
Toktok Stret
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vw.ytts/members/ 2,288
Vanuatu Economic Forum https://www.facebook.com/groups/279087255515223/ 2,327
Fiji Fiji Economic Forum https://www.facebook.com/groups/101900659898405/ 9,436
The FijianNews https://www.facebook.com/groups/183254098382234/ 8,208
Fiji Democratic Forum https://www.facebook.com/groups/fijidemocraticforum/ 8,854
Pacific-wide Pacific Buzz https://www.facebook.com/groups/pasifikbuzz/ 1,842
AAAPS: Aust. Assoc. for
the Advancement of
Pacific Studies
https://www.facebook.com/groups/108806605825519/ 1,749
Islands Business
International
https://www.facebook.com/groups/islandsbusiness/ 4,223
Author’s Pacific
islander contacts
Author’s own Facebook
contacts
N/A 110
Total potential respondent population 117,362
Finally, to encourage responses, the invitation post informed potential respondents
that they could opt in to receive a copy of the completed survey data by entering their
email address, which was collected separately to maintain confidentiality.
Results
Response rate
The survey received 240 unique visits and was completed by 80 respondents, a
response rate of 33%. The average completion time was 9 minutes and 23 seconds.
Demographics
12 respondents were screened out by Q2 (‘What is your country of origin?’) because
they were from outside the Pacific islands region. Their responses are omitted from
this analysis. Of the remaining respondents (n=68), the largest segment, 40% were
under 35. 53% were male and 44% female. 49% of respondents said they were from
Vanuatu, Smaller numbers came from Fiji, PNG and Solomon Islands. American

8. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 8
Samoa, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue and Tonga each represented 1.5% of the
sample (Figure 2 below). 16% were living in Pacific countries other than their own,
and 21% were living outside of the region. Age demographics are discussed below.
Figure 2. Country of origin of Pacific islands respondents (n=68)
Key findings
93% of Pacific islanders surveyed reported ‘ever’ getting their news on Facebook.
Slightly more than half go to Facebook to get their news, rather than getting their
news on the site while doing other things. One third say that Facebook is the most
important way they get their news.
54% of Pacific island Facebook users mostly access the site on smartphones. Only
10% use tablets (Figure 3 below). Mobile users tend to check Facebook throughout
the day, while PC users check occasionally. Smartphone news users use Facebook the
most, and tablet news users the least (Figure 4 below).
Figure 3. Devices Pacific islanders mostly use to access Facebook
Vanuatu
48.5%
Fiji
22.0%
Papua New Guinea
11.8%
Solomon Islands
10.3%
American Samoa
1.5%
Marshall Islands
1.5%
Nauru
1.5%
Niue
1.5%
Tonga
1.5%
Smartphone
54.2%
Desktop
PC
35.4%
Tablet
10.4%

9. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 9
Figure 4. Pacific islands Facebook news users daily usage by device
The under–35 demographic makes up 41% of Facebook news users, compared with
20% of those who don’t use Facebook to get news. The under–35s report seeing more
entertainment news on Facebook than older users, and they are also more likely to use
Facebook as a source of breaking news, though this figure (95% overall) is high for
all ages.
On other platforms, close to 75% of all respondents are active news consumers.
Under–35s show less engagement with all other news sources. The 45–54 age
demographic shows markedly less use of all news sources compared to other ages.
Facebook news users are also more likely than non-news users to use the site to share
photos or videos, post personal updates, chat or message with friends and family. 98%
of news users also report clicking on news stories they have seen on Facebook at least
sometimes, and 64% do so often. Sharing news stories and ‘liking’ or commenting on
a news story is less common (Figure 5 below).
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
< 30 min
30 min – < 1 hr
1 hr – < 4 hrs
> 4hrs
Desktop PC users
Smartphone users
Tablet users

10. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 10
Figure 5. Frequency of Pacific islands news users’ interactions with news stories on Facebook (%)
Over two-thirds of the news items Facebook news users see were posted by news
organisations or reporters. 79% report ‘liking’ or following news organisations,
reporters or commentators on Facebook.
For 92% of Facebook news users, interest in a topic is their main reason for clicking
on a news story. Facebook news users who ‘like’ or follow news organisations or
reporters are more likely to say that Facebook is the most important way that they get
news, to click on news links on Facebook and to talk about news stories with others
on Facebook (Figure 6 below). They are far more likely to post or share news items
often (46% versus 0%).
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
See latest news
headlines
Click on news
stories
Post or share
links to news
stories
‘Like’ or
comment on
news stories
Post your own
photos or
videos to a
news
organization
Discuss news
with other
people on
Facebook
Often Sometimes Hardly Ever Never

11. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 11
Figure 6. Pacific islands news users’ reasons for clicking on a news story on Facebook (%)
95% of Facebook news users say the major reason they shared a news story was to
pass along information that they think is important for people to know about, while
81% say the major reason they shared a news link was to create a discussion amongst
friends and family. 81% of Facebook news users prefer to get news from sources with
a neutral point of view, while 19% say they like to get news from sources that share
their point of view.
Discussion
Problems with methodology
There were several issues with the sample. Firstly, the sample size of 80 is too small
to accurately reflect the target population, giving the results a lower confidence level
and a higher margin of error than is desirable. Secondly, the sample does not
adequately reflect the demographics of individual Pacific island countries or as a
region. Melanesian countries are over-represented and Polynesian and Micronesia
countries are under-represented.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Already
following story
in the news
Friend
recommended
story
Story seemed
funny or
entertaining
Story was
published by a
news org. I
prefer
Story had lots
of comments or
likes
I was interested
in the topic
Major reason Minor Reason Not a reason

12. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 12
Lastly, the chosen method of delivery, Facebook groups, may have introduced sample
bias. Users with a strong professional or personal interest in news are possibly over-
represented in the survey.
Comparison to original survey results
Pacific islands Facebook users are much more engaged with the site as a source of
news. 47% of the original US survey respondents reported ‘ever’ getting news on
Facebook, compared to 93% in the Pacific islands survey. Just 4% of US news users
said Facebook was the most important way they got news, while the equivalent figure
in the Pacific islands was 33%.
A number of factors may explain this: rates for mobile and Facebook penetration are
rising, partly due to the youth ‘bulge’. Mobile usage of Facebook is high in the region,
and Pacific Facebook users are more likely to mostly use smartphones, 54%
compared to 30% for US users. However, these factors don’t fully account for the
high levels of news engagement, particularly as previous surveys found that levels of
trust in social media are low. It may be that news engagement is being driven more by
the social or deliberative features of the Facebook news experience, and that the lack
of trust pertains more to certain news sources on Facebook rather than the totality of
the Facebook news experience itself. More research on the social aspects of Pacific
islanders’ Facebook news use are needed to understand the contradiction between low
levels of trust and high levels of use of the Facebook platform as a source of news.
It is also possible that the higher levels of news use on Facebook reflect a deeper
cultural desire for civil engagement that is not being met by any single media
platform. This is conceivably why Pacific islanders report much higher levels of news
consumption than their US equivalents across all platforms. Local TV news use for
example is 86% versus 46% in the US. Radio is also more popular as a news source in
the Pacific islands, used by 62% versus just 26% in the US.
The same phenomenon may explain why Pacific islands news users engage more with
news organisations on Facebook. Two-thirds of US respondents say they see news on
Facebook that has come from friends and family. For Pacific islands respondents, the

13. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 13
figure is one-third. 34% of US news users ‘like’ or follow news organisations,
compared to 79% of Pacific island news users. As in the US survey, however, Pacific
islands news users say they are not clicking on news links because they come from
news organisations, but because they are interested in the topic. Pacific islands news
users display a stronger preference than their US counterparts for neutral sources of
news, with 81% preferring neutral over partisan sources, compared to 71%. Again,
these behaviours seem to hint at a deliberative tendency within Pacific islanders’ news
consumption behaviours, as already studied in Fiji and PNG in the context of election
campaigns and political debates in those countries.
The younger respondents in both surveys showed less engagement with other news
platforms compared to older respondents. The Pacific islands youth demographic is
much more likely to use Facebook as a source of breaking news than their US
equivalents, which may be a result of Facebook’s dominance of the social media
market in the Pacific islands.
Pacific islands news users are much more interactive news users on Facebook than
their US counterparts, reporting higher rates of clicking on news links (98% versus
64% overall). They also share news stories more (89% versus 43% overall). Much
more back-and-forth discussion happens among Pacific islands news users, 78%
versus 32% for US news users. Again, these patterns of behaviour may be a result of
Facebook’s enormous market share in the region. The other social networks that
perform these functions elsewhere in the world have been crowded out by Facebook
in the Pacific islands.
Conclusion
The results of this survey give us a better understanding of how people use Facebook
as a news source in the Pacific, despite the sampling issues. The key insight from this
study is that Facebook users in the Pacific islands show very high levels of
engagement as news users of the site. They engage and interact much more than the
population of the Pew Research Center’s original US survey. In comparison to their
US counterparts, Pacific island news users not only show more involvement with
news and news organisations on Facebook, but also greater levels of interest in news

14. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 14
across all media platforms. Parts of this study may indicate that in the absence of
strong competitors, Facebook has become the default location for online deliberation
in Pacific island countries.
The comparison between the two populations also hints at the possibility of a broader
socio-cultural dimension to the high levels of interest in news on social media in the
Pacific islands region, albeit one that contains incongruities such as low levels of
trust. Further research exploring this is required.
Recommendations
This study has highlighted some of the drawbacks of using Facebook for quantitative
research. It is recommended similar future studies in the should use a random
sampling method that better represent populations per country and at the regional
level.
When studying Facebook, a better way to acquire a random sample might be use
Facebook advertising, targeting the survey to national and demographical segments
until a representative sample is achieved. This will also avoid the sample bias inherent
in using Facebook groups.
Starting at the macro level, future research should analyse what socio-cultural
dimensions might be driving the engagement with news on Facebook that this study
found. One recommended focus is the examination of the role of this engagement on
deliberative democracy in the region.
At the micro level, more research is needed into Pacific islands Facebook users to
better understand why low levels of trust are reported despite the upward trend of
engagement with Facebook as a source of news.

15. © Copyright 2015 Nick Howlett, School of Humanities, Language and Social Science, Griffith University 15
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Pacific Journalism Review, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 58–72.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Facebook and News in the Pacific islands survey, October 13–15 2015
(Welcome screen)
Not much research has been done on how people use Facebook in the Pacific region.
This survey aims to improve our understanding of this.
The survey should only take 8 minutes to complete.
Please type your email address below if you would like to receive a copy of the
survey results. Otherwise, please scroll down to the first question.
Your privacy is important. Your email address will only be used to send you the
survey results.
Q1. First off, some demographic questions. Where do you currently live?
a. American Samoa
b. Cook Islands
c. Fiji
d. French Polynesia
e. Guam
f. Hawai’i
g. Kiribati
h. Marshall Islands
i. Micronesia, Federated
States of
j. Nauru
k. New Caledonia
l. Niue
m. Northern Mariana Islands
n. Palau
o. Papua New Guinea
p. Samoa
q. Solomon Islands
r. Tokelau
s. Tonga
t. Tuvalu
u. Vanuatu
v. Wallis & Futuna
w. Outside of the Pacific
Islands region
Q2. What is your country of origin?
a. American Samoa
b. Cook Islands
c. Fiji
d. French Polynesia
e. Guam
f. Hawai’i
g. Kiribati
h. Marshall Islands
i. Micronesia, Federated
States of
j. Nauru
k. New Caledonia
l. Niue
m. Northern Mariana Islands
n. Palau
o. Papua New Guinea
p. Samoa
q. Solomon Islands
r. Tokelau
s. Tonga
t. Tuvalu
u. Vanuatu
v. Wallis & Futuna
w. Outside of the Pacific
Islands region

21. 21
Q3. Now, how often do you use Facebook?
a. Several times a day
b. About once a day
c. A few days a week
d. Less often
Q4. How often do you…
Often Sometimes Hardly ever Never
a. Read any newspapers in print?
b. Listen to news on the radio?
c. Read any news magazines in print?
d. Read any news magazines in print?
e. Watch overseas television news?
Q5. Would you say you follow the news…?
(‘News’ means information about events and issues that involve more than just your
friends or family).
a. All or most of the time
b. Some of the time
c. Only now and then
d. Hardly ever
e. Never
Q6. Here are some reasons people follow the news. Is each a reason you follow
the news, or not?
Yes No
a. I enjoy talking with friends, family and colleagues about what’s
happening in the world
b. I need to for my job or school
c. I often find information in the news that helps improve my life
d. I feel I have a social or civic responsibility to stay informed
e. It provides entertainment
Q7. Thinking about the different kinds of news you get, do you mostly…
a. Get news from sources that SHARE my point of view
b. Get news from sources that have a NEUTRAL point of view

22. 22
Q8. Now, some questions about how you use Facebook. Do you ever get news
or news headlines on Facebook?
(Again, ‘news’ means information about events and issues that involve more than just
your friends or family).
a. Yes
b. No
Q9. Do you use Facebook on…
Yes No
a. A desktop or a laptop computer?
b. A smartphone?
c. A tablet computer?
Q10. Do you mostly use Facebook on…
a. A desktop or a laptop computer?
b. A smartphone?
c. A tablet computer?
Q11. How long ago did you start using Facebook?
a. Less than a year ago
b. 1 year to less than 4 years ago
c. 4 or more years ago
Q12. Which better describes how you use Facebook?
(Don’t worry if neither choice is exactly right – just choose the closest answer to your
view).
a. I check Facebook throughout the day or leave it open
b. I only check Facebook from time to time
Q13. On the days when you use Facebook, about how much time do you spend
using Facebook?
a. Less than 30 minutes
b. 30 minutes to less than an hour
c. An hour to less than four hours
d. Four hours or more
Q14. Is each of the following: (a) a major reason, (b) a minor reason, or (c) not
a reason you use Facebook?

23. 23
Major
reason
Minor
reason
Not a reason
at all
a. To share my photos or my videos
b. To post personal updates
c. To chat or message with friends and
family
d. To get news about events and issues
that involve more than just your friends
and family
e. To see what friends and family are up to
f. To play games
g. To see photos and videos from friends
and family
Q15. Now, a few questions about Facebook and news.
Thinking about posts about news on Facebook, which statement comes
closer to your view?
a. I enjoy seeing posts about news mixed in along with other kinds of posts
b. I don’t really enjoy seeing posts about news mixed in along with other
kinds of posts
Q16. Do you regularly see news about each of the following on Facebook,
or not?
(Again, ‘news’ means information about events and issues that involve more
than just your friends and family).
Yes No
a. International news
b. National government & politics
c. People and events in your own community,
town or local area
d. Local weather
e. Sports
f. Business
g. Science
h. Entertainment
i. Crime
j. Health & medicine
k. Climate change
Q17. Which of the following statements best describes Facebook for you?
a. Facebook is the most important way I get news
b. Facebook is an important way I get news, but not the most important

24. 24
c. Facebook is not a very important way I get news
Q18. Overall, would you say the news you get on Facebook is…
a. Mostly news I see only on Facebook
b. Mostly news I also see in other places
Q19. Have you ever used Facebook to keep up with a news event as it is
happening?
a. Yes
b. No
Q20. In general, is Facebook one of the first places you use to find out about an
important event as it is happening, or not?
a. One of the first places I go
b. Not one of the first places I go
Q21. When you are on Facebook, how often (if at all) do you…
Often Sometimes Hardly ever Never
a. See headlines about the latest
stories in the news?
b. Click on links to news stories?
c. Click on links to news stories?
d. ‘Like’ or comment on news stories?
e. Post your own news photos or
videos on a news organization’s or
reporter’s Facebook page?
f. Post your own news photos or
videos on a news organization’s or
reporter’s Facebook page?
Q22. Thinking about the people you discuss issues or events in the news with on
Facebook, are they mostly…
a. Close personal friends or family
b. People who I am not particularly close to
Q23. Do you ‘like’ or follow any news organizations, reporters, or
commentators on Facebook?
a. Yes
b. No

25. 25
Q24. Thinking about the news you get on Facebook, is it mostly from…
a. Posts, ‘likes’, or comments on the news from friends and family
b. Posts directly from news organizations or reporters
Q25. Thinking about the news organizations, reporters and news
commentators you ‘like’ or follow on Facebook, are they…
a. Mostly people and organizations I also read, watch, or listen to outside of
Facebook
b. Mostly people and organizations I follow only on Facebook
Q26. Here are some reasons people may click on links to news stories on
Facebook. Is each (a) a major reason, (b) a minor reason, or (c) not a
reason you click on links?
Major
reason
Minor
reason
Not a reason
at all
a. The story was something I had been
following in the news
b. A friend recommended the story
c. The story seemed funny or entertaining
d. The story was published by a news
organization I prefer
e. The story had a lot of comments or
‘likes’
f. The story had a lot of comments or
‘likes’
Q27. Here are some reasons people might post or share links to news stories on
Facebook. Is each a reason you post news links, or not?
Yes No
a. In order to make a statement
b. In order to create a discussion among my friends around
an issue or event
c. In order to pass along information I think is important for
people to know about
Q28. Which better describes why you get news on Facebook?
(Don’t worry if neither choice is exactly right – just choose the closest answer to your
view).
a. I think of Facebook as a useful way to get news

26. 26
b. I mostly get news on Facebook because I see it when I’m there for other
reasons
Q29. Two demographic questions to finish with now. What is your age?
a. 17 or younger
b. 18 to 24
c. 25 to 34
d. 35 to 44
e. 45 to 54
f. 55 to 64
g. 65 or older
h. I prefer not to answer
Q30. And lastly, what is your gender?
a. Female
b. Male
c. Other
d. I prefer not to answer
(Thank you screen)
Thank you very much for your important contribution to this research!
Please share this survey with your friends and family on Facebook – use the share
icons below or copy the link:
<Typeform.com survey URL>
<Social media sharing icons>

27. 27
Appendix 2: Pew Research Facebook News Survey August 21-September 2, 2012
(Pew Research Center 2013a)
Click on the image below to load PDF file from Pew Research Center (11pp, 66kb) in
your web browser.
(Alternative link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6785934/topline_facebook_news_10-2013.pdf)
1
www.journalism.org
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
PEW RESEARCH FACEBOOK NEWS SURVEY
FINAL TOPLINE
AUGUST 21-SEPTEMBER 2, 2013
GENERAL POPULATION N=5,173
FACEBOOK USER N=3,268
FACEBOOK NEWS CONSUMER N=1,429
ASK ALL:
Q.1 Do you use any of the following social networking sites? [RANDOMIZE A-D FOLLOWED
BY E-K, KEEP L LAST]
Yes No No answer
a. Facebook
Aug 21-Sep 2, 2013 64 36 *
QUESTIONS Q1b-Q1l HELD FOR FUTURE RELEASE
ASK EACH OF SITES USED IN Q1 (Q1=1):
Q.2 And do you use
Several times About once A few days Less No
a day a day a week often answer
BASED ON FACEBOOK USERS [N=3,268]
a. Facebook
Aug 21-Sep 2, 2013 46 22 17 14 *
QUESTIONS Q2b-Q2k HELD FOR FUTURE RELEASE
ASK ALL:
Q.3 Do you happen to have each of the following, or not?
Yes No No answer
a. A desktop or a laptop computer
Aug 21-Sep 2, 2013 91 9 1
May 9-Jun 3, 2012 (P-P) 79 20 *
b. A cell phone that is also a smartphone,
such as an iPhone, Android, Blackberry,
or Windows phone
Aug 21-Sep 2, 2013 54 45 1
Jun 29-Aug 8, 2012 44 56 *
May 9-Jun 3, 2012 (P-P) 48 51 1
c. A tablet computer like an iPad, Samsung
Galaxy, Motorola Xoom, or Kindle Fire
Aug 21-Sep 2, 2013 32 66 1
Jun 29-Aug 8, 2012 22 78 *
May 9-Jun 3, 2012 (P-P) 21 79 *