Seven in ten US-grown Twitter news consumers have followed the latest news there
The Pew Research Center conducted this study to gain insight into Twitter users’ views, attitudes, and behaviors on the site, and how those opinions may change based on their news habits on the site. For this analysis, we surveyed 2,548 US adult Twitter users in May 2021.
All participants in this survey are members of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. That way almost all American adults have a chance of selection. Read more about the ATP methodology.
This is the latest report in the Pew Research Center’s ongoing inquiry into the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation .
News plays an important role on Twitter. Overall, 23% of Americans use Twitter, and roughly seven in ten American Twitter users (69%) say they get news on the site, according to a new Pew Research Center study that surveyed 2,548 Twitter users between 17 and May 31. 2021.
For most of these Twitter news consumers, the site is an important way to keep up with the news — but not MOST important way. Only 8% of Twitter users who get news on the site say it is MOST important way they get news, while an additional 59% say it is important but not primary.
A key area of news that people rely on Twitter for is breaking news. Fully 70% of news consumers on Twitter say they have used Twitter to follow live news events, up from 59% who said so in 2015.
News consumers on Twitter have generally positive opinions about the accuracy and quantity of news they see on the site. Although only 7% of news consumers on Twitter say they have “a lot of confidence” in the accuracy of information on Twitter, two-thirds say they have at least some confidence in it. That’s far higher than the percentage of Americans (27%) who say they have at least some confidence in the information they find on social media in general. In addition, two-thirds of Twitter users who get news there say they like the amount of news they see on the site, compared to 32% who say they are tired of the amount of news there.
As with many other attitudes toward the media, however, significant partisan divides exist. Twitter news consumers who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party express higher levels of trust in the news they find on the site than those who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party: While 74% of these Democrats have at least some confidence in the accuracy of news and information they find on Twitter, fewer Republicans (52%) say the same. Republican news consumers on Twitter also express less satisfaction than their Democratic counterparts with the amount of news they see there. More of these Republicans (46%) say they are tired of the amount of news they see on Twitter than Democrats (25%).
Among those who receive news on Twitter, there is also a gap between the parties in perceptions of Twitter’s impact on society. A majority of Republicans who consume news on Twitter (63%) say the site is mostly bad for American democracy, while 26% of Democrats share this view. Democratic consumers of news on Twitter are more likely to say that Twitter is mostly one good thing about democracy (54%).
In general, news consumers on Twitter are more likely than other Twitter users (and Americans in general) to be Democrats, as well as to have college degrees and to be relatively young. Twitter news consumers are also more engaged with the site overall – 46% say they visit Twitter daily.
This seems to come with benefits and disadvantages. Just over half of Americans who get news on Twitter (57%) say that using Twitter has increased their understanding of current events, compared to 23% of other Twitter users. Twitter news consumers are also more likely than other Twitter users to say that using the site has increased their feelings of political engagement (37% vs. 15%, respectively). However, some also report that it has increased their stress levels: 31% of news consumers on Twitter say so, along with only 14% of other Twitter users.
The rest of this report looks at these and other findings in more detail. An accompanying Pew Research Center report examines Twitter behavior more broadly by pairing survey findings with user data.
