Technology

State of the News Media in 2015: Facebook and Mobile Rule

Published

9 years ago

April 29, 2015

In this Tuesday, April 28, 2015 photo, an unidentified person uses a mobile phone to read the news from The Huffington Post on Facebook, in Los Angeles. State of the News Media 2015, published Wednesday, April 29, 2015, by the Pew Research Centers Journalism Project found that nearly half of Web users learn about politics and government from Facebook, roughly the same percentage as those who seek the news through local television and double those who visit Yahoo or Google News. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A new report on the state of the media has some simple terms for how we learn about the world: mobile and social media.

More visitors to Yahoo, NBC and other top Internet sites are getting their news from mobile devices than from desktop computers, according to “State of the News Media 2015,” published Wednesday by the Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project. Pew also found that nearly half of Web users learn about politics and government from Facebook, roughly the same percentage as those who seek the news through local television and double those who visit Yahoo or Google News.

“News is becoming more diverse in the ways that people connect with it,” said Amy Mitchell, director of journalism research at the Pew center. Mitchell added that finding “new ways of connecting with and challenging” the audience is increasingly important for news outlets.

It’s unclear whether the majority status of mobile users on Yahoo and elsewhere is new. Numerous studies in recent years have tracked the rise of hand-held devices, but Mitchell said that Pew did not have immediate information from previous years on the ratio between mobile and desktop users for online sites.

A trend toward mobile could be troubling for the future of longer stories, because the Pew report shows that people are more impatient on small screens than on desktops. On Yahoo, desktop readers in January 2015 averaged 3.9 minutes per visit, compared to 2.3 minutes for mobile. For NBC News Digital, the ratio is nearly 2 to 1, with 5.1 minutes for desktop and 2.6 minutes for mobile.

Yahoo/ABC is by far the most popular Internet news provider, with nearly 128 million unique visitors, according to Pew. CNN Network was second with just over 101 million visitors, closely followed by NBC News Digital. Other top online sources for news included the Huffington Post, CBS News and USA Today.

Mitchell said that it was still too early to draw any definitive conclusions on reading habits. She noted that desk top users were hardly in danger of becoming obsolete, as millions use both home computers and portable screens, and that earlier studies showed that “many consumers do read long-form on their phones and tablet devices.”

“It doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t do long-form content,” she said. “It means that the ways people connect are different.”

Pew had some good news for network television news, for which the audience grew by 5 percent in 2014, and local TV news stations, which had a 3 percent increase for evening news. Meanwhile, cable news prime-time viewership dropped by 8 percent and newspaper circulation fell by 3 percent. Digital ad revenues were up slightly for newspapers, but not enough to offset a 4 percent drop for print ads, an ongoing problem for papers.

Other findings in the annual report:

PODCAST FEVER: The “Serial” phenomenon was not a fluke. Podcast monthly listenership has nearly doubled since 2008, from 9 percent of Americans to 17 percent. One-third of Americans have listened to at least one podcast, compared to just 10 percent in 2006. More than half of those surveyed listened to online radio in the previous month, nearly double from 2010.

ALL-NEWS DECLINE: The number of all-news radio stations fell to 31, a drop of six since 2012. Ten of those stations are owned by CBS.

FAIR AND BALANCED: Average circulation remained largely unchanged for most of the leading news magazines, from Time to Rolling Stone. But, as if abiding by some greater law of political balance, significant drops were reported for a leading conservative publication, National Review, and a top liberal weekly, The Nation.

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Attorney General Rob Bonta, Oakland Lawmakers, Introduce Legislation to Protect Youth Online

At a press conference in downtown Oakland on Jan. 29, Attorney General Rob Bonta joined Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) to announce two pieces of legislation designed to protect children online. The bills are Senate Bill (SB) 976, the Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act and Assembly Bill (AB) 1949, the California Children’s Data Privacy Act.

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

From left to right: Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), Attorney General Rob Bonta and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) at a press conference introducing legislation to protect young people online.

By Magaly Muñoz

The bills are Senate Bill (SB) 976, the Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act and Assembly Bill (AB) 1949, the California Children’s Data Privacy Act.

Skinner authored SB 976, which addresses online addiction affecting teenage users, while Wicks’s bill, AB 1949, takes on big tech by proposing data privacy and children rights protections.

“Social media companies unfortunately show us time and time again that they are all too willing to ignore the detriment to our children, the pain to our children, the mental health and physical challenges they face, in order to pursue profits,” Bonta said.

SB 976 would allow parents to control the nature and frequency of the content their under-18-year-old children see on social media. Notifications from social media platforms would also be paused from midnight to 6 am and controls would allow parents to set time limits on their children’s usage based on their discretion.

Skinner stated that the longer that kids are on their phones during the day, the higher the risk for depression, anxiety and other related issues.

The bill would also push to get rid of addictive media that is harmful for young women and girls, specifically image filters that mimic cosmetic plastic surgery.

Bonta and 33 other attorney generals had previously filed a lawsuit against Meta, owner of the popular social media applications Instagram and Facebook. The filing claims that the company purposefully uses algorithmized content that harms younger audiences.

“Social media companies have the ability to protect our kids, they could act, but they do not,” Skinner said.

The Child Data Privacy Act would strengthen existing protections for data privacy under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The lawmakers argue that the law does not have effective protection for those under 18 years old.

Wicks stated that the bill would forbid businesses from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone underage unless they receive informed consent, or it becomes necessary for the purpose of the business.

Wicks added that the acts would make it so that a search on the internet like “How do I lose weight?” would not result in dieting pill advertisements targeting youth, which, some experts report, could be harmful to their mental and physical health.

“In a digital age where the vulnerabilities of young users are continually exploited, we cannot afford to let our laws lag behind, our children deserve complete assurance that their online experience will be safeguarded from invasive practices,” Wicks said.

Supporters of the two acts say they have gained bipartisan support issue, but the authors and Bonta expect them to be met with pushback from the affected companies.

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Unleashing the Power_ Discover the The Thrills…F-TYPE Convertible

Published

4 months ago

December 18, 2023

Oakland Post

Performance & Handling
Powered by a robust 5.0 Liter Supercharged 8 Cylinder Gas Engine, the F-Type R75 doesn’t just purr; it roars with a mighty 575 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. Coupled with an 8-speed Automatic Transmission, the car offers an exhilarating drive that is both fast and smooth. The All-Wheel Drive system ensures excellent traction and stability, making it a joy to handle in various driving conditions. The Electric Power Assisted Steering and JaguarDrive Control with Selectable Driving Modes add to the car’s agility, providing a driving experience that is as intuitive as it is thrilling. Additionally, the Adaptive Dynamics and Electronic Active Differential with Torque Vectoring by Braking enhance the car’s responsiveness, making every turn a testament to its engineering prowess. Unique to AutoNetwork.com.

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Elevate Your Ride…

Join us for a virtual car’s best-detailed walkaround of the sleek and stylish 2024 Jaguar F-TYPE AWD convertible. Get an up-close look at the exterior design, interior features, and performance capabilities of this luxury sports car. From its powerful engine to its advanced technology, this video will give you a comprehensive overview of what makes […]
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Published

4 months ago

December 18, 2023

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Join us for a virtual car’s best-detailed walkaround of the sleek and stylish 2024 Jaguar F-TYPE AWD convertible. Get an up-close look at the exterior design, interior features, and performance capabilities of this luxury sports car. From its powerful engine to its advanced technology, this video will give you a comprehensive overview of what makes the F-TYPE AWD convertible stand out on the road. Unique to AutoNetwork.com.