How important is social media to the spread of information? A new survey shows nearly half of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25 get news through Facebook and Twitter.

The survey from the MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics shows 45% of young Americans get their news through social networks while 49% read the news through newspapers and magazines.

The survey also found that nearly the same number of young people participate in politics online. Via TechPresident:

This data is part of a larger survey examining the idea of what it means to be politically active for this digitally native generation. The survey defines "participatory politics" as "interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern."

The authors of the report are Joseph Kahne, an education professor at Mills College and chair of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics and Cathy J. Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, and founder of the Black Youth Project.

"It's not that their rates of political participation are super-high," Kahne said of the survey's subjects. "As most people know, most people don't focus on politics most of the time except maybe during presidential elections. But certainly if we ignore these kinds of participatory activities, we're missing a lot."