The latest study from Pew Internet analyzes the news Americans are consuming and various different ways they find news. Based on a sample of 2,259 adults, the study reveals that three fourths of the people (75%) who find news online get it either forwarded through e-mail or posts on social networking sites, and half of them (52%) forward the news through those means.

This translates to a large portion of all Americans. According to the report, 59% of those surveyed get news from a combination of online and offline sources.

However, the study also shows that very few people nowadays (7%) are getting information from a single media platform. In fact, nearly half of Americans (46%) claim they get news from four to six media platforms on a typical day. And while TV is still the biggest source of news (78% of Americans say they get news from a local TV station), Internet sits at second place (61% of users get news online), ahead of radio and newspapers. Interestingly enough, relatively few people — only 17% — claim they read news in a national newspaper such as The New York Times or USA Today.

Also interesting is the division between news consumers according to their relationship to news. Thirty-three percent of cellphone owners now access news on their phones, and 28% use personalized news, meaning they have a customized page that includes news from sources they've chosen. Perhaps most importantly, news consumers today participate in the creation of news; 37% have contributed to news creation, commented on news or shared it via social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

The entire report is available here.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, enot-poloskun