Facebook users are mostly drawn to entertainment news, which is a hefty 73 percent, when compared to other topics, per a new study.
The study conducted by Pew Research Center (in collaboration with the Knight Foundation) discovered that nearly 47 percent of adults in the U.S. glean some news from the site.
"On Facebook, the largest social media platform, news is a common but incidental experience, according to an initiative of Pew Research Center in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Overall, about half of adult Facebook users, 47%, "ever" get news there. That amounts to 30% of the population," per the study by Pew Research Center.
Per the study, which was conducted from August 21 to September 2 via an online survey of 5,173 adults (including 3,268 Facebook), the maximum number of adults in the U.S. do not log into Facebook in search of news. Instead, nearly 78 percent of the news consumers get the information when they happen to be on the site for other purposes.
"People go to Facebook to share personal moments -- and they discover the news almost incidentally," said Amy Mitchell, Pew Research Center's director of journalism research.
"The serendipitous nature of news on Facebook may actually increase its importance as a source of news and information, especially among those who do not follow the news closely."
In comparison, a mere 4 percent of respondents revealed that they get news via Facebook.
"I believe Facebook is a good way to find out news without actually looking for it," summed up a respondent.
The most popular topic of news is entertainment (73 percent), followed by events in one's own community (65 percent). Sports ranks third with 57 percent reach and national politics and government news comes in at fourth with 55 percent.
For most news consumers, Facebook is not their primary source of information pertaining to current affairs or breaking news.
"Facebook has yet to become a platform for learning about news events as they happen. Just 28% of Facebook news consumers have ever turned there for breaking news," per the study.
Facebook apparently "exposes some people to news who otherwise might not get it" suggesting that the delivery of news is incidental rather than intentional.
