With nearly two-thirds of both Twitter and Facebook users getting their news from the social media networks, we get a better idea why the two companies have been making moves into online journalism. The clear majority of news users is a sharp increase from 2013 when Twitter was a news source for 52% of its users and Facebook 47%, according to a new study conducted by Pew Research Center in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The survey showed that Twitter and Facebook are sources for news about events and issues outside the realm of friends and family,  While each network has 63% of news users, the two differ significantly in their potential news distribution strengths. “The proportion of users who say they follow breaking news on Twitter, for example, is nearly twice as high as those who say they do so on Facebook (59% vs. 31%) – lending support, perhaps, to the view that Twitter’s great strength is providing as-it-happens coverage and commentary on live events,” the report said.

The key findings of the study are:

• Twitter news users are more likely than their counterparts on Facebook to report seeing news about four out of 11 topics (national government and politics (72% vs. 61%), international affairs (63% vs. 51%), business (55% vs. 42%) and sports (70% vs. 55%).
• The rise in the share of social media users getting news on Facebook or Twitter cuts across nearly every demographic group.
• When it comes specifically to news and information about government and politics, Facebook users are more likely to post and respond to content, while Twitter users are more likely to follow news organizations.

The Pew study notes that its findings come as Twitter and Facebook put more emphasis on news. “Twitter is soon set to unveil its long-rumored news feature, 'Project Lightning.' The feature will allow anyone, whether they are a Twitter user or not, to view a feed of tweets, images and videos about live events as they happen, curated by a bevy of new employees with 'newsroom experience.'... In May, Facebook launched Instant Articles, a trial project that allows media companies to publish stories directly to the Facebook platform instead of linking to outside sites, and, in late June, Facebook started introducing its “Trending” sidebar to allow users to filter by topic and see only trending news about politics, science and technology, sports or entertainment."