Pew: How cell phones, internet have turned news into a social experience

March 01, 2010

Pew: How cell phones, internet have turned news into a social experience

In the last few years, the social aspects of news have shifted from the sidelines to center stage, thanks to the evolution of internet and mobile technology. A new report from the Pew Research Center’s Project on Excellence in Journalism explains how this works. See: How internet and cell phone users have turned news into a social experience

A few highlights…

Popularity: “The internet has surpassed newspapers and radio in popularity as a news platform on a typical day and now ranks just behind TV.”
Portability: “33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.”
Personalization: “28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.”
Participation: “37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. ...More than 8 in 10 online news consumers get or share links in e-mails.”
Socializing: “Getting news is often an important social act. Some 72% of American news consumers say they follow the news because they enjoy talking with others about what is happening in the world and 69% say keeping up with the news is a social or civic obligation. And 50% of American news consumers say they rely to some degree on people around them to tell them the news they need to know.”

The mobile aspects are especially interesting. About 80% of American adults have cell phones, 37% of them use their phones to acces the net. Just over one quarter of all Americans (33% of US cell phone owners) get at least some news via cell phone today. Here’s the kind of mobile news they get:

Weather: 26%
News and current events: 25%
Applications for news content: 18%
Sports scores and stories: 16%
Traffic: 13%
Financial: 12%
News via e-mail and text messaging: 11%

The complete report is available online.

By Amy Gahran, 03/01/10 at 1:34 pm
Comments (59) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend
Tags: research, mobile, social media, pew, social

Comments

Cool stats. The times they are a changin’.

By coupon codes, 06/02/10 at 4:01 pm

re: Personalization: “28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.” This is interesting to hear, I always thought that most web users would stick Google on as their own page, but I guess it makes sense for users looking for instant news as and when it happens. Was surprised how high that percentage was though.

By Sly81, 10/16/10 at 6:48 am

Through cellphone and internet we can interact with other people so easily. We can save a lot of our time and learning is convenient and really easy since there are lot of ways to transfer information.
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By jpaul08, 10/21/10 at 7:49 pm

Participation is important. Indeed as 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter roulette, it is clear that the news landscape has been changed forever. Interaction is the word, and it will be more and more so.

By paula417, 10/22/10 at 8:18 am

You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with this idea.
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By fastfinder, 10/25/10 at 9:21 pm

If your phone doesn’t support sending multiple pictures, then you will have to send the 100 photos individually. It’s not “rediculous”, that’s just how it is. Facebook mobile wasn’t designed for uploading batch photos (especially so many).

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By carios, 11/05/10 at 9:47 pm

I think customization will continue to grow as users become more web savvy.

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By villa, 11/10/10 at 7:57 am

Some 72% of American news consumers say they follow the news because they enjoy talking with others about what is happening in the world and 69% say keeping up with the news is a social or civic obligation.

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By fastfinder, 11/12/10 at 2:43 am

Great Topic, Our generation simply has more resources than ever to socialize through sources that has become an important part of our daily communication activity lives. Internet & Phones has certainly become a sensational socializing tools I wonder how our socializing devices will be in 50 years…