Findings supported earlier hypotheses, showing a 67% positive correlation between most social media platforms and news consumption. Instagram was the lowest, with only 23% of users consuming news at all, and 54% using Instagram as their main news source.
Twitter was ranked as "most trusted" in news delivery, with over 80% of users believing that everything they read on Twitter was true, compared to Facebook (59%), Google+ (74%), Reddit (72%) and Myspace (3%).
However, the bulk of the research focused on consumption of media via Facebook, the largest social media site in the world with over 1.2bn active users. Topics ranged from use of third party apps and services to use of in-house content and data management, such as Photo Albums and Events.
"For the most part, I just use Facebook once a day to check messages from me mum," said Caleb Hunt, a young man living in Liverpool. "She's very protective so I don't get to use it much. But every once in a while, I'll sneak a peek at some of me mate's posts and think, 'Wouldn't it be grand to speak to me friends?' But then I go back to tending to the pigs."
Caleb was an obvious outlier in the study, but one that brings up questions of social media use in rural communities.
Nevertheless, the study concluded that an astonishing number of users, over 90%, believed that Facebook was the only source for news - despite their distrust of most news on the platform.
"I learn about recipes, my friend's new grandchildren, and how to keep Obama off my property!" said 86-year-old Granny Dills. "I mostly click on the links and then the computer takes me somewhere else. I don't like it."
Granny Dills currently has nearly 2,000 tabs open on the Chrome browser that her grandson installed 4 months ago.
Findings corroborated Granny Dills' testimony with that of the younger generation, as well, albeit with interests skewed more toward relevant modern dilemmas.
Dr. Jack Richards of the CSMS explained his fear that younger generations would not use more than one source of news to make an opinion.
"It's truly worrisome that these younger generations only consume media from one source," says Richards. "Without the ability, or desire, to do independent investigative research on topics, corporations with enough money to promote their news on Facebook could skew viewpoints in a very tangible way."
Richards urges Facebook users to use more than one platform, separate from social media at all if possible, for news consumption to avoid bias. In a surprise to even this publication, Richards informs that these Facebook links to news articles are actually a part of a bigger entity, called a "website." Richards notes that not all of a "website's" content actually makes it onto Facebook, and that there's a lot that people are missing.
