A large portion of adults in the US are using micro-blogging site Twitter as a primary source of news, a recent survey has shown.
A study from think tank Pew Research Center, conducted in collaboration with the US-based Knight Foundation, found that half of all adults in the US who use Twitter regularly consume news content through the site.
Recent data has suggested that around 16% of American adults are signed up to the social network.
The survey defined ‘news’ as information about issues and events taking place beyond the scope of a user’s family and friends.
Additionally, it was found that around 45% of those reading and watching content from news suppliers fell within the 18-29 age bracket – compared to just 34% of Facebook’s news consumers.
Conversely, despite a large number of people valuing Twitter for the quality of its various news feeds, the results of a poll published earlier this week found that 52% of Americans in the 18-34 age bracket think it would not be a good idea to invest in the company when it enters the stock market.
Just over a third (36%) said that buying shares in the company would be a sensible investment – falling far short of the 51% who felt the same about Facebook ahead of its IPO in 2012.
Overall, it was found that Twitter’s US news consumers are better educated than Facebook’s – with 40% of news-loving tweeters holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 30% using Facebook.
Those on Twitter were also found to be considerably more mobile than their counterparts – around 85% of Twitter’s news hounds get their content, at least occasionally, using mobile devices, compared to 64% on Facebook.
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