A drop in information consumption on social networks in 2021?

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By Louise Faudeux and Mathilde Caubel, France Télévisions Information MediaLab

While the role of social media in the spread of fake news is increasingly being questioned, many people still turn to these sources for information. As it does every year, the Pew Research Center has published a quantitative study on the consumption of information on social media . This study was conducted on a panel of 11,178 American adults, between July and August 2021.

After a year of global pandemic and its share of infodemic, conspiracy theories gambling data japan and disinformation, the number of people looking for information on social networks is slightly down, even if a third of American Facebook users continue to consider Mark Zuckerberg's platform as a reliable source of information. TikTok , for its part, is rising as a channel of information among young people, with 29% of the social network's users of Chinese origin regularly going there for information.

The number of people getting their news from social networks is (slightly) decreasing



Even as more Americans expect better government regulation gambling data japan of the spread of false information online , many continue to turn to social media to get their news. But their numbers are down slightly. This year, 48% say they get their news “often” or “sometimes” from social media, compared to 53% last year .

It can also be noted that the number of Americans who do not get their information from social networks or more generally from the internet is slightly increasing (33% in 2021 compared to 28% in 2020).

One-third of US users get their news from Facebook, YouTube second largest source

When it comes to the networks the panel turns to for information, Facebook remains in the lead. When users of 10 social networks were asked if they regularly get their information from them, 31% of Facebook users (66% of respondents) answered in the affirmative. Despite having more users in the panel (72%), YouTube is behind with 22% of users using it for information.

Twitter and Instagram are also significant sources for the panel, with 13% and 11% of users respectively stating that they often get their information there. The six other social networks used by the panel are not really considered as sources of information by their users at the moment: Reddit (7%), TikTok (6%), LinkedIn (4%), Snapchat (4%), WhatsApp (3%) and Twitch (1%).

However, it can still be noted that the percentage of Facebook users saying they get their information there is decreasing: they were 36% in 2020.