Nearly half of online news consumers get news from social media and non-traditional news outlets at least several times a week, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The study, released Monday, states: “Some 44% of online news users get news at least a few times a week through emails, automatic updates or posts from social networking sites. In 2009, Twitter's monthly audience increased by 200%.”

It also notes: “While most original reporting still comes from traditional journalists, technology makes it increasingly possible for the actions of citizens to influence a story's total impact.”

Even more important, the news that people get via social media and other online outlets is quite different from what they find on mainstream news outlets.

“Most broadly, the stories and issues that gain traction in social media differ substantially from those that lead in the mainstream press. But they also differ greatly from each other. Of the 29 weeks that we tracked all three social platforms, blogs, Twitter and YouTube shared the same top story just once. That was the week of June 15-19, when the protests that followed the Iranian elections led on all three.”