Who reads the most news found through social media on smartphones?

Women are much more likely than men to read news stories found within social media on their smartphones, according to the latest mobile media survey from the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI).

About three-quarters of the women who owned smartphones said they had interacted with social media and 65 percent said they had read news stories found within social media in the week prior to participating in the survey. By comparison, about two-thirds of men said they used their smartphones to interact with social media and 54 percent said they had read news stories found within social media

While men were somewhat more likely than women to consume content provided directly by news organizations and to search the Web for news on their smartphones, women and men tended to spend about the same amount time using their smartphones for these activities.

About 60 percent of men and women overall said they spent more than 20 minutes on a typical day with news organization content and nearly as much time searching the Web for news on their smartphones. Around one-third of men and women overall spent more than 20 minutes on a typical day reading news found on social media. To read additional findings about smartphone use, click here.

About the survey
Nearly 1,200 randomly selected U.S. adults participated in RJI's third annual Mobile Media News Consumption survey between Jan. 1 and March 31. This phone survey focused exclusively on the use of smartphones and touch-screen tablets with mobile operating systems.

In case you missed the previous reports:

• Report 1: Tablets are now commonplace in households with children
• Report 2: Seniors hold key to future growth for mobile media.
• Report 3: Majority of smartphone owners are now routinely using news apps.

Coming soon in Report 5: Who is using large media tablets and tablet news apps in 2014?