A latest study from Pew Research Center has revealed that one in three U.S. adults get their daily news via Facebook, though it is incidental.
Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, plays a very important role in bringing daily news to most U.S. adults. Most people log on to the social network to check up on their friends and share photos but they stumble upon news incidentally, a latest study has found.
The study, conducted by the Pew Research Center, says that almost half of the U.S. adult population, which uses Facebook admits getting news while browsing the social network. But only 4 percent of Facebook users described the social network as the most important source for news.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from 5,173 responders to conclude that Facebook news is a "common but incidental experience."
Although Facebook feeds enormous news information to most of the users via shared links on users' News Feed page, only 38 percent heavy news followers described Facebook as an important news source.
"If it wasn't for Facebook news," one of the respondents answered to Pew's questionnaire, "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."
Social media plays an important part in our daily lives to connect better with the world, know what's happening around and learn new things. More and more people sign up to services like Facebook and Twitter to share their personal experiences with friends, family and the world, which is the easiest way to get the word out.
According to the current Pew research, adults aged between 18 and 29 account for one third of Facebook news consumers.
The study was conducted from August 21 through September 2, 2013. The study included 5,173 respondents, which included 3,268 Facebook users and 1,429 of them consumed news from Facebook.