The title of the talk was Share, Like, Recommend: Decoding the Social Media News Consumer.

Abstract: Social media is becoming ever more ingrained in the experience of news consumers. Social networking sites are evolving from being more than spaces for personal exchanges, becoming one of the mediums for sharing and recommending the news as users appropriate computer-mediated technologies for their own purposes. While the dissemination of news through social interaction has always played a role in the diffusion of media, sharing is becoming central to the way many experience the news. Research into how networked publics are reframing the news and shaping news flows suggests people are using social media to complement, rather than replace, more traditional media sources.

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The three presentations were by Zizi Papacharissi of University of Illinois at Chicago, Adrienne Russell of the University of Denver and myself. The session was moderated by Kalyani Chadha of the University of Maryland.

The research presented:

• Share, Like, Recommend: Decoding the Social Media News Consumer; by Alfred Hermida.
• The rhythms of news storytelling on Twitter: Affective news streams, hybridity, and networked publics; by Zizi Papacharissi.
• A Networked Approach to Emergent News Media Landscapes, by Adrienne Russell.



Video streaming by Ustream

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Canadians still trust the mainstream media, despite the rise of social media, according to the latest Canadian Media Research Consortium (CMRC) report.

According to a recent online survey of 1,682 adults, nine out of 10 Canadians judged information provided by traditional news media to be reliable and trustworthy. This compares to only one in four who say information from social networks is reliable.

It is the latest in a series of studies by researchers from the University of British Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, including myself, into the changing news consumption habits of Canadians.

“In an era of increasing fragmentation and competition for established news media, this is good news for traditional journalism,” said Fred Fletcher, UBC Graduate School of Journalism adjunct professor and lead author of the study, Even in the Digital Era, Canadians Have Confidence in Mainstream News Media (PDF).

The study did show that younger Canadians are more likely than their elders to have confidence in non-traditional news providers. But they still retain strong confidence in the mainstream media as well.

Our findings also suggest a difference in attitude towards social media between those who are immersed in this media ecosystem and those who are not part of this world.

Confidence in the information found on social networking sites is higher among frequent visitors to social networks. Among Canadians who visit social networks at least daily, some 40 per cent regard the information found there as reliable.

In contrast, virtually everyone surveyed who doesn’t use social media ranked it as not reliable as a source for information.

Given the growing influence of social networks in the distribution of news, it will be interesting to track how levels of confidence evolve over the coming years as a generation grows up with social media woven into their daily lives.

The Canadian Media Research Consortium report is based on an online survey of a representative national sample of 1,682 adults conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20. The results were statistically weighted according to the most current Statistics Canada data on age, gender, region, and education to ensure a representative sample.

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The study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism shows how Facebook is increasingly driving traffic to news websites.

While Google was the top referral service, accounting for about 30 per cent of traffic to news sites, social recommendation is playing an increasingly significant role.

Overall, Facebook was responsible for three per cent of visits. For five sites, the social network was the second or third most popular driver to their content.

“Facebook is beginning to join Google as one of the most influential players in driving news audiences,” said the study that analysed the flow of traffic in the US to 25 news websites using statistics from Nielsen.

If searching for news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing news may be among the most important of the next.

In contrast, Twitter ”barely registers as a referring source,” accounting for less than one per cent of traffic. Only the Los Angeles Times received more visits from Twitter than Facebook  - 3.5 per cent versus just over two per cent.

Pew also found that the inclusion of social recommendation tools on news stories “seems to have paid off,” suggesting that  ”while these are technically clicks away from the site, they are positive clicks away, likely multiplying additional traffic to that story.”

The Pew study is in line with the results of a CMRC study published last week on the impact of social media on how Canadians get the news.

The study, on which I was the lead author, found that 43% of social media users said they get some of their daily news via recommendations from friends and family on sites like Facebook: the equivalent of 6.5m Canadians.

But we found that more people prefer to get their news via their friends and acquaintances on social media, than from a journalist or news organization.

Our survey also highlighted the importance of providing sharing tools on news stories.  Close to two-thirds of social media users said they valued being able to easily share content with others, with the figure jumping to 83 per cent for young Canadians.

While Google and the news homepage still dominant how people get the news, both the Pew and CMRC studies point to a shift towards social recommendation influencing what news gets read online.

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Our report, Social Networks Transforming How Canadians Get the News (PDF), suggests that many people now expect the news to come to them, filtered by family, friends and acquantances rather than only by professional journalists.

We found that 43% of social media users get their daily news via recommendations from friends and family on sites like Facebook: the equivalent of 6.5m Canadians.

This compares to 66% of of all news consumers who turn to newspaper websites, 52% to TV news websites and 33% to  radio news website.

The idea of news as a social experience is important for online Canadians. Close to two-thirds say they value being able to easily share content with others. For young Canadians, the figure rises to 83%.

The dissemination of news through social interaction has always affected the spread of news. But networked digital media technologies are extending the ability of news consumers to both create and receive personalized social news streams. The trend is, unsurprisingly, most prevalent among the young.

Our key findings:

• More than two-thirds of Canadians who use social networking sites value them as a way of keeping up with the news.
• More than half of Canadians on social networks say they get a broader range of news and information from them than if they just relied on traditional media.
• One in three Canadians overall value social networks as a source for news, with the figure rising to one in two for young adults.
• But only one in four consider information from social networks as reliable.
• Canadians on social media are twice as likely to get their news from friends and family on social networks such as Facebook than from news organizations or journalists they follow.
• Twitter is emerging as a news source: one in five Canadians on social media get their news from friends and family on Twitter, compared to one in 10 from news organizations or journalists.

I was the lead author on the Canadian Media Research Consortium report. It is based on an online survey of a representative national sample of 1,682 adults conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion.

The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20. The results were statistically weighted according to the most current Statistics Canada data on age, gender, region, and education to ensure a representative sample.

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The research paper (PDF) by Brian Baresch, Dustin Harp, Lewis Knight and Carolyn Yaschur from the University of Texas at Austin surveyed 78 US Facebook users and the links they shared.

The team suggested we are moving from an ink economy to a link economy.

In a rapid overview of the exploratory research, Baresch said they found people were posting more links about entertainment than any other topic and women posted more links than men.

More of the links were to text articles, followed by videos, especially music videos.

Most links didn’t get many comments, and women tended to get more comments than men.

The researchers suggested that frequent linkers on Facebook have distinctive genre, topic and source patterns particular to their interests.

They hope the findings will help us better understand how news finds its way through online social networks via what they describe in the paper as “active surveillance and discussion leaders and their repurposing of content”.

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The series was kicked off by a piece I wrote on how to teach social media at journalism schools:

Teaching social media is more than showing students the mechanics of Twitter. Rather, they should learn how to build a network of relevant followers and how to interact with them to be a better journalist.

In the classroom, we need to stress that social media technologies do not just offer journalists new ways of doing old things. They offer the potential to explore new ways of telling stories, of collaborating and connecting with audiences, of rethinking how we do journalism.

The article looks at how journalism professors are incorporating social media in the curriculum within an academic environment where the pace of change is slow. It includes practical examples of how educators are engaging with students.

The full piece is on PBS Mediashift.

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It found that 78% would change information they publish about themselves online if they thought the material would later be reproduced in the mainstream media. This is a new ethical issue for journalists, as Facebook and other social networking sites become sources for journalists.

Social networking sites are used by more than 80% of youngsters in the UK. Yet it appears that few think about the personal details they publish online.

The PCC found that only 55% of people think before posting information that it might later be used by journalists or employers without their consent.

The research showed that most web users think there should be clear guidelines about the type of personal information that can be published online. But the press watchdog has shied away from new regulations, preferring instead to rely on self-regulation.

In the words of Christopher Meyer, chairman of the PCC:

In the digital age, self-regulation, with its sound principles and speed of operation, has never been more relevant. That is why I expect our current Code of Practice to be able to handle complaints in this area; and in the process to enable the Commission over the coming months and years to define through its decisions the boundary between the private and the public.

So no new rules, despite concern from the public. However, journalists would have resisted any new regulations and these could have been difficult to enforce.

And the PCC might not be the best body to do this as it has been accused of caving in to the interests of the newspaper industry.

But clearly there is a need to reassess journalism ethics in a digital age. The meaning of private and public is increasingly blurred online. Journalists have a responsibility to behave ethically but the challenge is agreeing how this applies to personal data published online but not intended for the mass media.

The big question is how to define press intrusion in a digital age.

Related articles

• Should Social Networks Be Regulated? [via Zemanta]
• Facebook information should be regulated, survey says [via Zemanta]
• Web users ‘fear media intrusion’ [via Zemanta]

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A Facebook group has been set up to coordinate a mail-in blitz to CBC in support of Jpod on May 19th.

The campaigners are suggested fans send in a little Lego man or woman in honour of the book’s cover and Douglas Coupland‘s passion for Lego.

The campaign is reminiscent of the one in the US that resulted in the brief revival of Jericho.

As the Inside the CBC blog notes, it’s ironic that the “the tech-loving fans of the show are actually using snail mail to launch a campaign!”

(Cross-post from Newslab.ca)

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Now, instead, it is not the news media that is providing the online glue, but new players such as Facebook and MySpace. Social media has proved a runaway hit, especially among Canadians.

A report by Ipsos Reid has found that Canadians spend an average of 5.4 hours per week accessing social networks. It found that nearly one in four Canadians have visited an online social network, while 29% have placed a profile on at least one such site.

As you might expect, younger Canadians are leading the way, with two-thirds visiting social media sites and just over half posting a personal profile.

Scott Patton, Senior Research Manager in Western Canada:

This is a staggering result given that these sites didn’t exist four years ago. Facebook launched in early 2004, as did MSN Spaces, two of the largest such sites on the Internet. The growth in use of these sites simply hasn’t been matched by any other Internet activities we’ve ever seen.

However the same report warns the use of online social networks may not continue to grow as rapidly in Canada. Even with a slowdown in the growth of social media, this is a phenomenon that the mainstream media cannot ignore.

The young people using Facebook today are not going to be turning to newspapers in older age for that “social glue”. As youngsters add, they are going to take their digital habits with them. The challenge for the news industry is to become part of these new online communities.

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