Facebook emerges as key 'incidental' player in news
A survey by the Pew Research Centre of over 5000 people has found that in the US, Facebook is becoming an ‘incidental’ source of news, with 78 percent of respondents getting their news there ‘without actually looking for it.’
Facebook exposes people to news who otherwise might not get it
The Pew centre said the survey provides evidence that Facebook exposes some people to news who otherwise might not get it.
“If it wasn’t for Facebook news, I’d probably never really know what’s going on in the world because I don’t have time to keep up with the news on a bunch of different locations,” one respondent said.
Pew said that ‘it may be the very incidental nature of the site that ultimately exposes more people to news there’.
It also found that fully 59 percent of all adult Facebook users and 53 percent of Facebook news consumers mostly access the site through a desktop or laptop computer rather than a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet.