44% of Americans often get news on Facebook, according to recent research from the Pew Research Center. That’s about the same as the percentage that get their news from local TV news shows. Only 20% often get news from newspapers. Slightly more of us — 25 to 30% — get our news from online sites, network TV news shows, or the radio. Adding all types of TV together brings TV in as the top news source, but that’s just because Americans over 50 are very likely to get their news from TV: 72% of those 50-84 and 85% of those 85 or older rely on TV for news.
Only 45% of those 30-49 choose TV news, and only 27% of younger adults do, according to Pew. For these groups, online news is the winner, with more than half choosing online news and less than 10% picking up a newspaper.
Our survey of Puerto Ricans in Florida found that TV news was the main way they kept in touch with news from the Island. Almost 22% kept up by talking with friends and family in Puerto Rico, and just under 18% went online for their news. This survey didn’t ask about Facebook, but more than half of the respondents in this survey were over 50, so the numbers may not be very different from those gathered by the Pew Research Center.
So what’s wrong with using Facebook as a primary news source?
As Trevor Noah of The Daily Show puts it, “Facebook doesn’t give you the news. It gives you your news.” The news we see at Facebook is the news about our friends and family, which Facebook knows is very important to us. But we will otherwise only see the news that Facebook thinks we want to see: ideas and information that we agree with and that we’re already interested in.
We want you to share this post and all the rest of the news and information you enjoy here with your friends and family and Facebook is a good way to do that. We want you to Like our page, and to let us know what you think about the issues facing Puerto Rico when you visit us there.
But if you rely on Facebook for your news about Puerto Rico, you might also want to check out some online newspapers from Puerto Rico. There are news sources in English and in Spanish.
We think that the more you know, the more you will see that statehood is the best option for Puerto Rico, and the more you will want to take action to achieve statehood.
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