More than 60% of adults surveyed depend on Facebook for political new.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) owns the world’s most popular social network. It is no surprise that it has a significant influence on society. According to a recent survey, this influence extends to political news consumption that was supposed to be the domain of television.
The survey was conducted by Pew research center. The research center surveyed online adults for the sources of political news. As it turns out, the social networking ranks higher in terms of political news consumption. In any given week, nearly 61% young adults get political news from Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). This staggering share has surpassed news sources like CNN, Google News, ABC news, FOX news, NBC news, Yahoo News and local TV. This percentage varies with age of audience. For example, 61% adults that get political news from the social network are from the age group of 18-33 years.
The social network is more popular with the current tech-savvy generation compared to old generation. For example, nearly 51% of the adults from age group 34-49, the middle age group, use Facebook to get news about government and politics. This is almost 10% decline from the statistics of young adults. However, the percentage is still significant. It is to be noted that half the audience from this group prefers local TV over Facebook.
On the other note, the wise generation of age group 50-68 still prefers TV. The survey indicated low reliance on Facebook for this age group. The survey has revealed a few surprising facts. First of all, the young generation which is not much interested in political news, does prefer the social network for the same. The survey focused on American audience; consequently the findings are more meaningful for the American society.
Most important conclusion that can be drawn from this survey is the fact that the news algorithm of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) can significantly affect the political and social influence of news related government and politics. The company has recently updated its news feed algorithm.
