AP poll: Black, Latino millennials don’t lag on tech use

Washington • A new poll finds black and Latino millennials are just as technologically connected and likely to get news through social media as regularly as their white counterparts, further narrowing the risk of people of color being left behind technologically.

Overall, 57 percent of millennials say they get news and information from Facebook at least once a day, and 81 percent say they get it from Facebook at least once a week. The poll also found that Latinos and blacks are just as likely as any millennials to have a paid news sub- scription.

There was little differentiation between racial groups getting news from Facebook, the poll found. But about half of black millennials said they comment on news stories posted to Facebook, compared to about 3 in 10 whites and Latinos.

The findings suggest that, despite fears that millennials — those 18 to 34 years old — may not be going to traditional sources for news, they are clearly getting news from social media.

"People of color are very wired and just as adept in using technology," said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, which funded the study. "If you want a subject that hasn't been covered in the mainstream, millennials have found ways to get at that information through community sharing more than traditional ways. The way they get news is heavily influenced by topic."

In general, 64 percent of millennials say they read and watch news online regularly, including 66 percent of blacks, according to the poll, which was conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute. Sixty-five percent of white millennials say they keep up with the news online, while Hispanics were slightly less likely to say so, at 53 percent

In the 1990s, policymakers and advocacy groups expressed concern that minorities would have less access to technology than whites, a situation labeled the "digital divide."

Over time, however, minorities emerged among the biggest users of certain forms of technology, such as smartphones.

The AP-NORC study found no evidence to suggest that blacks' and Latinos' use of technology lags behind whites, with nearly all millennials using a smartphone and half using a tablet.

Blacks are also more likely to use Facebook for keeping up with what's "trending" on social media — 41 percent of blacks compared with 29 percent of whites and 24 percent of Latinos.

Those who are Latino or black are more likely than white millennials to get news and information from YouTube (38 percent of Latinos compared with 33 percent of blacks and 20 percent of whites) and Instagram (30 percent of Latinos compared with 45 percent of blacks and 19 percent of whites).

According to Rosenstiel, YouTube's popularity partially stems from users' ability to produce content without gatekeepers.

"We see topics that aren't mainstream finding a big audience — a lot of gamers, comedy, news commentary. As something goes mainstream, young people look for new channels to exercise some control," he said.

Streaming music, TV or movies is the most commonly cited online activity among blacks, while keeping up with what their friends are doing is the most commonly cited online activity among Latinos. For white millennials, checking and sending email was most common.

"What we've seen is millennials' similarities are much greater than the differences people thought that there were going to be," Rosenstiel said of the online experience. "We've created new common ground."