Half of Americans get news from social media but for many, it’s not by choice.

On three of four major platforms, most users aren’t going there for news but see it anyway — and it’s often sketchy.

That’s according to a new survey by Pew Research Center, part of its Pew-Knight Initiative examining media and technology trends. This time it focused on how Americans see news on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram.

The findings raise interesting questions for a news industry desperately trying to connect with audiences online.

They are also another reminder that the word “media” in “social media” doesn’t mean that these tech platforms are particularly good places to get informed or distribute news.

Pew found that X remains a news driven site even though the site’s owner, Elon Musk, repeatedly attacks and denigrates the news media.

Getting news is a major or minor reason that 65% of users go to X, Pew found. Among all X users, 92% see news related content on the site.

In contrast, getting news is a major or minor reason that just 41% of TikTok users go there. Just 37% of Facebook users and 33% of Instagram users say news is a reason to visit those sites. Even so, 82% to 91% of those sites’ users still end up seeing news when they visit.

“Seeing news” in this case doesn’t necessarily mean seeing a news article. It could include seeing someone opine on a news event, a joke referencing current events or information about a breaking-news event that’s happening.

Nor does that mean people are getting news from journalists.

X is the standout, with 80% of news consumers there saying they’ve gotten news there from news outlets or journalists.

TikTok news consumers are just likely to get news there from influencers or celebrities, and 84% get news there from strangers — “other people they don’t know personally,” as Pew put it. Instagram and Facebook news consumers are most likely to get news from friends, family and acquaintances.

At least they know the “news” they’re getting for free is a mixed bag.

At X, 86% of the news consumers say they often or sometimes see news that seems inaccurate, Pew found. At Facebook, 84% often or sometimes see inaccurate news, 76% say that about Instagram and 71% about TikTok.

Breaking that down, among X news consumers, 37% see inaccurate news “extremely often” or “fairly often,” Pew found. Among Facebook news consumers, 33% often see inaccurate news while 25% say that about Instagram and 23% about TikTok.

Pew also found that Republicans are more likely to say they’ve seen inaccurate news at Facebook, and Democrats are more likely to say that about X.

The results are based on a sample of 10,287 adult internet users and have a 1.5% margin of error.

Perhaps Pew should collaborate with the Harris-Guardian pollsters who last month found half of Americans believe down is up and up is down when it comes to the economy.

Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the U.S. is in a recession, 49% believe unemployment is at a 50-year-high when it’s actually at a 50-year low and 49% believe the S&P 500 is down when it’s actually up.

Where are they getting this bogus information, and how do they discern what’s accurate?

Pink slime overtakes daily newspapers: If you can’t take any more distressing news about our media ecosystem, don’t read the rest of this column.

A new report by NewsGuard said pink slime websites, purporting to be neutral local news outlets but actually tied to partisan groups or hostile governments, now outnumber daily local newspapers in the U.S.

NewsGuard, a company that rates news sites, found 1,265 pink slime sites as of June 2024, overtaking the 1,213 remaining dailies tallied last fall by Northwestern University’s Medill School.

“Pink slime sites have rushed to fill the void left by shuttering local newspapers in the U.S.,” NewsGuard said in a release.

That includes the States Newsroom network of nonprofit news outlets, which NewsGuard tags because of its progressive backer.

An Axios report notes that States Newsroom disputes its characterization as partisan. Even if you exclude the roughly 40 sites operated by States, there are still more pink slime sites than daily newspapers, per NewsGuard’s count.

A clearer example of pink slime that NewsGuard identified is “a network of 167 news sites operating as part of a sophisticated pro-Russia disinformation network.”

That network includes 64 sites posing as local news outlets, with names like “The Boston Times,” that are spreading false narratives ahead of the U.S. elections.

“The network is the first apparent crossover of its kind between so-called ‘pink slime’ sites, artificial intelligence and Russian disinformation,” NewsGuard said in its release.

I wish all the luck to voters trying to find trustworthy news this fall.

This is excerpted from the free, weekly Voices for a Free Press newsletter. Sign up to receive it at the Save the Free Press website, st.news/SavetheFreePress. Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley is the editor of the Free Press Initiative, which aims to inform the public about issues facing newspapers, local news coverage, and a free press. You can learn more about the Free Press Initiative, or sign up for a newsletter, at https://company.seattletimes.com/save-the-free-press/.