Did you know that nearly half of all Americans receive some form of local news via a mobile device, and 46 percent of them get their news online at least three times a week?

Online newspapers officially surpassed their print counterparts in ad revenue in 2010, and digital media has continued to make major inroads ever since. Social media is now one of the top three news sources, commanding an impressive 27.8 percent of the market, and it’s catching up with the traditional newspaper… fast.

Indeed, according to recent data, newspapers have just a single percentage point lead on social media as a source of reportage, with Facebook (59.5 percent), Twitter (19.9 percent) and YouTube (12.7 percent) leading the charge. Since 2009, traffic to news sites from social media channels has increased dramatically, and some 57 percent of adults who consume news via a digital device predominately use Facebook and Twitter.

Of course, journalism isn’t actually going away – it’s simply the medium that is changing. While social media empowers all of us to be the source, and to break the story, there will always be a high demand for quality reporting. But the way in which we digest that information is rapidly changing – and in this writer’s opinion, very much for the better.

This infographic from Schools.com takes a closer look at how social media is replacing traditional journalism.

(Source: Schools.com. News tablet image via Shutterstock.)