Facebook has been the growing source of news for US adults, with one in three getting news through the social networking site, a new research reveals.
While most of the Americans do not go to Facebook in search of news, about 80% of them encounter news when they are going over on friends or sharing photos, according to survey by the Pew Research Center.
However, serious news users did not prefer the social networking site as a vital news source.
Pew director of journalism research Amy Mitchell said: "People go to Facebook to share personal moments – and they discover the news almost incidentally."
About 67% of those who use Facebook for an hour every day get news there than with 41% of those who spend below an hour per day on the social networking site.
Nearly 46% of all Americans watch local TV news on Facebook, while 24% of them watch cable news, and 27% consumers reading print newspapers.
Approximately half of US adults report getting news on six or more different topics, while they often like or comment on news stories as clicking on links.
Overall, minority of US news consumers prefer news that shares their opinion and majority of them access Facebook through the desktop/laptop computer.
Social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are trialling ways to gather and share news as part of efforts to keep people returning to their sites.
Recently, Facebook reported 170% rise in its referral traffic to publishers’ sites through 2012.
