Source is less relevant for news via social media

When people read news items on Facebook or Google, they often do not remember where they read it.
This is the conclusion of research by Reuters Institute among 1,600 British citizens.
The researchers tracked which news items were read. 47% of people who read the news via social media remembered where it came from. This was 37% for those who used a search engine. They did remember the names of the social media – Google, Facebook, Twitter – used.
67% of the first group (social media) remembered where they had read the news after two days. Only 57% of people using a search engine remembered this. The research was aptly called “I Saw the News on Facebook”.

Online news media are more often visited via what the researchers call side-doors. Direct visits count for only a third of the total visits. Those who accessed the site directly were better able to remember the source, 81%.

The research also goes into the question of which platform was more efficient in remembering the news. A PDF of the research can be downloaded here.