2014 Marks an Increasing Amount of News Consumption on Mobile Devices and Social Media

Jacqueline15 and Susann48 According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, there's an increase in news consumption through mobile devices and social media in 2014. The UK and the US show similar trends in app and device usage.
News Apps Usage Is Increasing Compared to News in the Browser in the UK and US

The US and UK have similar habits in their use of news apps to access news. Almost 50% of smartphone users in the UK use news apps to access their news, which has risen compared to access on mobile browsers. In general, 16% of UK users use news apps, which is similar to 15% of users in the US. The rise of news apps, despite news organizations optimizing their sites for mobile browsing, may be due to the increase in Apple phones in the UK, which favor using apps over browsing.

Similar Mobile Device Usage for News in the UK and US

This trend between the 2 countries continues in their device usage, though the UK seems to be changing at a faster rate. Both the US and the UK showed an increase in using a smartphone for news, currently at 31% and 33% respectively. However, tablet use increased 7% over the last year in the UK compared to an increase of 3% in the US. In addition, the percentage of people in the UK who only use 1 device for news dropped 5% to 49%, while the percentage for the US dropped only 1% to 55%. The 2 countries have similar usage, but the UK shows slightly more diverse device usage in 2014.

Facebook and Other Social Media Are Used to Spread National and Local News

In the US, news is spread using social networks such as Facebook. In this Powerpoint, we can see how social network sites are used to share news in the US and in various countries in general. In all cases, around 35% of people use Facebook to share news. In the US, Yahoo is one of the most popular brands used to access news online, with the second most popular being local news sites. Overall, people have the highest interest in and consume the most national news. As for local news, there is a high level of interest, but a significantly lower consumption rate.

Mobile Device Users Still Use Other News Sources Often

Despite smartphone and tablet users using news apps and social media for their news, a whopping 84% still use TV News as another news source. In addition, around 40% still read newspapers, and around 35-40% still listen to radio news. Mobile devices have not taken over our news consumption yet, although they have added another device that news can be accessed on.