Pew Research Center finds reason to believe that American journalism has a future — and social media will play a key role.

In its 2014 review of the state of the media industry, the Pew Research Center finds reason to believe that American journalism has a future — something that hasn’t been obvious after years of belt tightening, layoffs, technological changes, and newspaper closures.

New digital media companies have arisen and thrived, many with assistance from talented people from traditional media organizations. Entrepreneurs comparable to Jeff Bezos, John Henry, and Pierre Omidyar are bringing needed investment and the attitude of outsiders to the industry. And there’s evidence that social media are getting a meaningful channel to achieve the young audience essential to sustain the inside track industry because the newspaper generation ages.

But the will for revenue has brought change that challenges traditional media practices. Pew’s report finds that “the overlap between public relations and news noted in last year’s State of the inside track Media report became much more pronounced.” Many online publications now include content that’s paid for by commercial advertisers and can’t easily be distinguished from reported stories. Sometimes this sponsored content is even written by staff news writers. The metrics firm eMarketer predicts these “native ads” — promotional copy dressed up as reported news — will generate $2.85 billion of revenue this year.

[Has Facebook become overwhelming? Here’s easy methods to lower at the clutter. Read 5 Facebook Spring Cleaning Tips.]

The importance of social media to news is tough to overestimate. The Pew Research Center cites eight findings about social media and their relationship with news that folks should take from its report.

1. News matters more on some social media sites than on others.
Consistent with the Pew report, 30% of usa citizens get at the least some news while on Facebook. On YouTube, that figure is 10%. On Twitter, it’s 8%. Few users of Instagram and Pinterest get their news there.

2. Reading news on Facebook is secondary to social interactions.
The report says that 78% of Facebook news users are inclined to see news while using Facebook for other activities, and that only 34% of Facebook users who read news there bother to love a news organization or journalist. Facebook may not be the precise place for news organizations to develop deep audience engagement.

3. News seen through Facebook covers quite a lot of topics.
Though entertainment news is the foremost commonly seen category among Facebook users (73%), other categories are well represented. Science/technology and business are both least popular topics, at 37% and 31%, respectively.

4. Engagement is a key portion of social news interaction.
Among social networking site users, 50% shared or reposted news stories, images, or videos; 46% discussed a news issue or event; 14% posted their very own photo of a news event; and 12% posted their very own video of a news event.

5. Twitter represents a passionate community, but its views differ from the mainstream.
For instance, Pew’s study notes that, inside the days following the 2012 Newtown, Conn., shootings, 64% of Twitter users called for stricter gun control laws. A broader Pew public opinion poll on the time found only 49% of respondents supported that view.

6. The emotions expressed in Twitter conversations may be fickle.
The report notes that, from April 1 to April 14 of last year, 55% of Twitter users expressed opposition to same-sex marriage, and 32% expressed support. Yet, from April 15 through May 12, 46% expressed support for same-sex marriage, while 26% opposed it.

7. The audience for news differs across social platforms.
On Facebook, the share of male news consumers is 42%, and the proportion of female news consumers is 58%. On YouTube — where commenters can hide behind pseudonyms — the gender distribution is sort of reversed: 57% male and 43% female. On LinkedIn, the gender disparity is much more pronounced: 67% male and 37% female. On Twitter, it’s an excellent 50-50 split, but its audience has the top percentage of teenagers: 45% are between 18 and 29, compared with just 18% on LinkedIn. However, LinkedIn has the most important percentage of users with in any case a bachelor’s degree (64%).

8. Visitors who come to a news website through Facebook or search-related display advertising are less engaged than people that seek the location out directly.
Though Facebook and search might matter for hitting website traffic targets, they do not seem all that helpful for building an extended-term, sustainable audience.

Social networking and news clearly have a future together. There’s already a startup called Newsle so that it will send you news about people on your social network. However the result of that hookup could be expected to alter: Social engagement is not the same thing as a sustainable revenue model.

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Thomas Claburn was writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications resembling New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and tv, having earned a not particularly useful … View Full Bio

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