The internet is now a more popular medium than traditional print or radio media, research detailing the consumption of news in the US has revealed.
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, based in Washington DC, claimed that news consumption had been transformed into "a shared social experience."
This pattern is attributed to internet and mobile technology, with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter turning the consumption of news into a participatory event for many.
Some 37 per cent of people who responded had actively engaged in the dissemination or reporting of news through social networking or blogging, while three quarters had received news in that manner.
Unsurprisingly, the study revealed that the majority of Americans get their news from a variety of sources.
TV remains the most popular source of news, with 78 per cent of respondents watching local stations and 73 per cent a national news broadcast.
Meanwhile 61 per cent of respondents search the internet for news.
The mobile internet market is also gathering pace. More than a third of US mobile phone owners receive news via their handset.
According to the report, "Traditional news organisations are still very important to their consumers, but technology has scrambled every aspect of the relationship between news producers and people who consume news."
The Pew Research Center is an American polling and social science research organisation which attempts to illuminate the issues and attitudes shaping people in the US.
