There is little doubt that the way we find and search for news has changed dramatically and is continuing to morph and develop.

A central factor is that the new and more effective  way to find breaking news is through the use of social media platforms  like Facebook and Twitter.

A number of recent reports point out  that  more people are heading for  social media  to find the latest news and developments in ongoing stories.

This stands to reason as Twitter, for example, is a much more up-to-the second method of finding out about  the latest developments  of a breaking news story – and this is supported by the ever-useful hashtag;  so that you can follow ongoing developments as they happen. Many news sites in fact incorporate Twitter news feeds in their ongoing news reports, as a way of keeping the viewer up-to-date.

The amazing increase in mobile devices to search online has become a phenomenon that no news agency can ignore. As can be seen from the infographic  below, more and more people are searching for the latest news on their mobile devices – and usually finding it social media channels  like Facebook.  This is a trend that is set to grow. Watch out for  mobile search  apps that plug into social media channels and that will possibly rival Google as a means of finding the latest news. Laura Donovan from Business 2 Community states a view that is becoming common practice — “These days my news comes in my Facebook News Feed, fine-tuned and tailored to exactly what I want to know. CNN, The New York Times, Bloomberg, TMZ, Mashable, Social Times all have a place in my News Feed. I get the exact news that I want to see without thumbing through pages and pages of newspaper. The best part is that it’s free.”

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