Thread by @mariliacout

1 / Who reads what - I subscribe a few professional notification systems for my research use, some newsletters from the fitness industry to track how much they are maliciously neglecting or misusing science and Google USA trends, to check the trending search terms by ranking.

2/ Political issues very rarely make it to the top. That doesn't mean the number of Americans reading about politics is too small (it is, but this is not the indicator). It means they are not checking anything.

3/ Older American adults, those that also vote more, are driving the trend towards closing the gap between traditional and online (cellphone) sources for their political news needs:
pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017…

4/ Twitter leads the trend in obtaining news from social media. Unfortunately, that trend is more pronounced among the lower income groups and minorities.
journalism.org/2017/09/07/new…

5/ That means that regardless of whether it's online or on paper, the educated and richer still read newspapers but the most vulnerable segments of society, those that need information tools for decision-making the most, are the ones who are being "educated by Twitter".

6/ So here's what you end up with:
- 35/36% read news online either from social media (where Twitter growth leads) or from links to online media resources. But see above for income and social indicators
- Most read news from friends or family's text (echo chamber)

7/ Unfortunately, the more educated people (minority in every respect) are the ones that read the most realiable (or less unreliable) news outlets
people-press.org/2012/09/27/sec…

8/ In the USA, digital activism and the digital machine of misinformation are concentrated on Twitter and this is why: while all other platforms keep +/- the same audience, Twitter grows concerning news:

9/ Other countries' public opinion is influenced by other social media outlets. Whatsapp, originally just a messaging cellphone app, is now the focus of misinformation activity in countries like Brazil, who elected a fascist president, and here is why:

10/ Who reads the carefully curated news that some of us create, then? Statistically speaking, nobody. "Trace numbers". We keep doing it, though.

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