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Horrigan, John. (2009) “ Wireless Internet Users,” Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, Washington, DC. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/12-WirelessInternet-Use.aspx.
Part 5: News gets personal, social, and participatory Introduction Americans’ relationship to the news is being transformed in several directions thanks to the new tools and affordances of technology. Encounters with news are becoming more personal as users customize their experience and take charge of the flow of news into their lives. News is becoming a shared social experience as people exchange links and recommendations as a form of cultural currency in their social networks. And news is becoming a participatory activity, as people contribute their own stories and experiences and post their reactions to events. This chapter explores these changes in more detail.
News as a social activity Recall that earlier in this report we noted the evidence in this survey that people’s connection to the news is a social activity equally as much as it is a learning activity and productivity enhancer. Some 72% of Americans who follow the news at least now and then say they enjoy talking with friends, family, and colleagues about what is happening in the world and 69% feel that keeping up with the news is a social or civic obligation. Moreover, in the age of technological social networking, some now say they rely on the people around them to tell them when there is news they need to know. Half of Americans (50%) say that describes them very well or somewhat well.
How does this play out online? The act of sharing of news and conversation about news is an integral part of email exchanges and social media activity. Of the 71% of the adult population who get news online, 75% of them say they get news forwarded to them through email or posts on social networking sites. That amounts to 71% of all internet users. When news is passed along to them, 38% of this cohort read the material all or most of the time; 37% read it some of the time, and 23% say they hardly have time to read it. Pew Internet & American Life Project
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Of these internet users who get news online, 50% say they pass along email links to news stories or videos to others. (That represents 48% of all internet users.) Those who