• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 26, 2024

There have been many surveys purporting to predict how Hispanic Americans will vote this year. Less studied is how they get their news, but that has been rectified, to some degree, by Pew Research.  

Only 22% of Latino adults follow the news closely, a finding that more or less matches the broader U.S. population, Pew reported last week. And, as with other groups, those age 65+ are much more likely to do so (44%), compared to 32% for Gen Xers, 19% for millennials and 20% of Gen Xers. 

In addition, 41% of those in the upper income brackets are more likely to follow it than lower income (18%) and middle income (25%) individuals. And those with college degrees are also more attentive to news.  

However, attention to news has declined since 2020.

As with other Americans, Hispanic consumers tend to use digital devices to access news – 87%, versus 86% of whites, 80% of Blacks and 93% of Asians. However, Hispanic Americans are less like than most other groups to utilize print.  

At the same time, 21% of Hispanics prefer social media for keeping up with news, compared to 13% of Black Americans and 10% of White.  

English seems to be the preferred language for news consumption by Hispanics: 54% read news in English, 21% in Spanish and 23% in both languages equally. And their preferences are similar.  

However, 81% of U.S.-born Hispanics obtain news in English, versus 26% of immigrants. Among U.S.-born readers, 92% of those in the third generation or higher prefer English, compared to 83% who are second generation. 

Only 21% get news from Hispanic news outlets extremely or very often, and 28% sometimes. Another 49% say rarely or never.  

They are slightly more likely to turn to Hispanic outlets for news about their or their family’s country of origin. 

The findings are based on an American trends panel survey of 5,078 U.S. adults who identify as Hispanic, conducted from Nov. 6 to Nov. 19, 2023.