Poll: Facebook No. 1 source of political news for millennials

Facebook is the most common source of political news for millennials, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

Sixty-one percent of millennials, defined as adults between 18 and 33 years old, told researchers they got political news from Facebook in the previous week. CNN is the second most common source for the group, which is coveted by advertisers, with 44 percent saying they’d turned to it in the last week.

{mosads}That means millennials are about as reliant on Facebook for news about politics and government as baby boomers are on local television, according to the report.

Millennials also use Google News at higher rates than other generations.

Google News and BuzzFeed were the only two news sources that millennials are more aware of than members of Generation X or baby boomers.

The findings, which are based on data collected last year, come as news organizations grapple with Facebook’s massive influence on the media business because of its ability to drive its large user base to stories and videos posted by news outlets.

Last month, Facebook debuted a long-expected feature that allows publishers to post directly to the platform. In return, publishers get either a share or all of the revenue from advertising on the stories.

That announcement has stoked fears that publishers are surrendering too much power to the social networks, but publishers have defended the arrangement as important to providing content to readers who spend much of their time online.

The survey was conducted online with a sample of 2,901 people between March 19 and April 29, 2014.