Men, college grads are more engaged with news on mobile devices

Analyzing news consumption on mobile devices, a recent Pew study looks at education, income level and gender as it relates to watching or reading news.

Detailed within a new study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, the group asked questions related to how average Americans consumed news on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. After asking a series of questions to approximately 9,500 U.S. adults, the researchers discovered that men were more likely to consume news on mobile devices when compared to women. Specifically, more than forty percent of men consume news on smartphones and tablets while less than a third of women use mobile devices to read or watch news. 

In addition, men are more likely to watch news videos on mobile devices as well as read traditional, lengthy news articles. Alternatively, women are more likely to discover news stories on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

When it comes to sharing news stories, users between the age of 18 to 49 are much more likely to share news stories with their friends compared to anyone over the age of fifty. Anyone under the age of fifty is vastly more likely to watch news videos over reading an in-depth article.

On the topic of the effectiveness of digital advertising, the youngest generation is the most likely to tap on an advertisement. Approximately one fourth of users between the age of 18 to 29 said they touch ad placements on tablets. However, only 12 percent of people between the age of 30 to 49 and seven percent of people over the age of 50 claimed to to the same. However, older users are much more likely to pay for a premium subscription to a news service.

Regarding education, people with a college degree are more likely to consume news on a smartphone or tablet when compared to people that did not complete college. In addition, education levels also show an interesting link to how a person consumes news on a mobile device.

People that have completed college are more likely to use a dedicated news application while people that didn’t complete college are more likely to find news through a Web browser on a tablet or smartphone. As news consumption relates to income levels, people making more than $30,000 a year are more likely to consume news using smartphones and people making more than $75,000 a year are more likely to do the same using a tablet.

Beyond news, people between the age of 18 to 29 are the most likely to play games, use a social network or read a book on a smartphone. That age group is also the most likely to read a book or magazine on a tablet. When comparing tablet usage between iPads and Android devices, iPad users are significantly more likely to use the tablet multiple times a day compared to Android tablet owners. In addition, iPad owners are more likely to consume news on the tablet as well as use social networks and check email. When comparing tablet ownership versus education and income level, people that have graduated from college and make more than $75,000 per year are more likely to own an iPad. Amazon’s Kindle Fire line was included within the Android tablets group.