For Americans, the News Is on Social Media

Americans have officially put news websites and TV channels on the backburner, turning instead to social media and video networks like Facebook, X, and YouTube to get their news. Some 54% of people in the US now get their news from social media and video sites, making this the new main source, reports the BBC. In comparison, 50% get their news from TV and 48% from news sites and apps, according to an annual report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which surveyed nearly 100,000 people in 48 countries. Globally, 36% use Facebook for news each week, 30% use YouTube, 19% use Instagram, 19% use WhatsApp, 16% use TikTok, 12% use X, and 7% use AI chatbots and interfaces.

Yet 47% of respondents worldwide reported online personalities and influencers were a major source of false or misleading information. Populist politicians around the world are "increasingly able to bypass traditional journalism in favor of friendly partisan media, 'personalities', and 'influencers' who ... rarely ask difficult questions, with many implicated in spreading false narratives or worse," according to the report, which points out President Trump has invited social media influencers and content creators to press briefings while denying access to some traditional media outlets. The most widely-seen personalities in the US were Joe Rogan (22% of respondents reported getting news from him in the past week) and Tucker Carlson (14%), per Reuters.

The report finds "the rise of social media and personality-based news" is "happening faster—and with more impact" in the US than in other countries. The US had the highest proportion of people accessing podcasts for news at 15% and the biggest increase in scrolling news on X. Some 23% of Americans used the site for news, for an 8% increase over 2024, per the report. Rival networks like Threads and Bluesky are "making little impact globally, with reach of 2% or less for news," it adds, per the BBC. Author Nic Newman said this "represents another significant challenge for traditional publishers," though consumers of news also see a problem: 73% in the US and 58% globally said they're concerned about their ability to tell truth from fiction. (More news stories.)