Nielsen: Younger African-Americans more likely than to view news on TV and online
While social media has fast become a popular destination for real-time news headlines, traditional media such as TV and online remain key staples. A new Nielsen analysis looked at news consumption among African-American consumers and found that this group is one of the most highly engaged with news content, across multiple screens.
African-Americans accounted for 11 percent of the adult TV news audience in the U.S. during December 2013. Younger African-American viewers tuned in to news programming at a higher rate than the overall 18-34 news audience. These viewers accounted for 12 percent of adult African-American news viewers, compared with the 8 percent of 18-34 year-olds who made up the overall news-viewing population during that month.
During same period, 15.4 million African-American adult Internet users visited a news and information site from their computer, spending 1 hour, 47 minutes hours per person, on average. African-Americans aged 35-54 accounted for 44 percent of those visitors, and they spent nearly half (49%) of their time on news sites. Comparatively, 18-34 year-olds represented a third of the African-American news visitors and time spent, respectively.
More than 15 million African-American adult smartphone owners accessed news content on their devices during December 2013, up 17 percent from 2012. African-Americans aged 55+ increased their news content consumption via their mobile devices the most, spending 83 percent more time in December 2013 than in the same month a year ago.
Twitter, whether for news or just entertainment, is also a popular choice among African-Americans. More than half (52%) accessed Twitter via mobile app or Web during December 2013. Looking at just the Twitter app, nearly a third of African-Americas accessed the app. They were also 30 percent more likely to use Twitter than any other mobile app.
