A study held in early 2024 found that more than a third of surveyed consumers in selected countries worldwide had witnessed false news about politics in the week running to the survey. Suspicious or false COVID-19 news was also a problem. False news False news is often at its most insidious when it distorts or misrepresents information about key topics, such as public health, global conflicts, and elections. With 2024 set to be a significant year of political change, with elections taking place worldwide, trustworthy and verifiable information will be crucial. In the U.S., trust in news sources for information about the 2024 presidential election is patchy. Republicans and Independents are notably less trusting of news about the topic than their Democrat-voting peers, with only around 40 percent expressing trust in most news sources in the survey. Social media fared the least well in this respect with just a third of surveyed adults saying that they had faith in such sites to deliver trustworthy updates on the 2024 election. A separate survey revealed that older adults were the least likely to trust the news media for election news. This is something that publishers can bear in mind when targeting audiences with updates and campaign information. Distorting the truth: the impact of false news Aside from reading (and potentially believing) false information, consumers are also at risk of accidentally sharing false news and therefore contributing to its spread. One way in which the dissemination of false news could be stemmed is by consumers educating themselves on how to identify suspicious content, however government intervention has also been tabled. Consumers are split on whether or not governments should take steps to restrict false news, partly due to concerns about the need to protect freedom of information.

A 2024 study on news consumption among children in the United Kingdom found that 37 percent of respondents aged 12 to 15 years old had come across deliberately untrue or misleading news online or on social media in the year before the survey was conducted. 35 percent said they had not seen any false news.

In 2024, 53 percent of Poles who had previously come across fake news stated that TV was the main source of disinformation. Every second respondents quoted encountering fake news on social media platforms.

The results of a 2024 survey on news consumption among children aged 12 to 15 years old in the United Kingdom revealed that 35 percent of all respondents said that they would tell their parents or another family member if they encountered deliberately untrue or misleading news online or on social media. Informing parents or relatives was therefore the most popular potential action children would take, however the same share said they would probably not do anything or would ignore any false information they found. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the differences in responses from 12-year-olds compared to 15-year-olds were often stark, with the former group being more likely to tell a teacher, whilst the latter were the most inclined to ignore false information or to report it to the website or platform concerned.

In 2024, approximately six in 10 Poles believed manufacturers hide information about harmful ingredients/food additives. Another popular fake news was that limits on paying with cash are put in place to control the public.

In 2024, approximately eight in 10 Poles have encountered 'fake news' before.

During a 2024 survey, 77 percent of respondents from Nigeria stated that they used social media as a source of news. In comparison, just 23 percent of Japanese respondents said the same. Large portions of social media users around the world admit that they do not trust social platforms either as media sources or as a way to get news, and yet they continue to access such networks on a daily basis. Social media: trust and consumption Despite the majority of adults surveyed in each country reporting that they used social networks to keep up to date with news and current affairs, a 2018 study showed that social media is the least trusted news source in the world. Less than 35 percent of adults in Europe considered social networks to be trustworthy in this respect, yet more than 50 percent of adults in Portugal, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia said that they got their news on social media. What is clear is that we live in an era where social media is such an enormous part of daily life that consumers will still use it in spite of their doubts or reservations. Concerns about fake news and propaganda on social media have not stopped billions of users accessing their favorite networks on a daily basis. Most Millennials in the United States use social media for news every day, and younger consumers in European countries are much more likely to use social networks for national political news than their older peers. Like it or not, reading news on social is fast becoming the norm for younger generations, and this form of news consumption will likely increase further regardless of whether consumers fully trust their chosen network or not.

According to a survey led in February in France, 74 percent of all respondents believed that they encounter misinformation very or quite often on social media. Out of all the media listed, traditional ones such as press, television, and radio were considered to be more trustworthy and less likely to share false news.

A survey conducted in September 2024 found that U.S. adults perceive election news accuracy differently depending on their political affiliation. Among Republican respondents, 85 percent reported seeing inaccurate election news at least somewhat often, with over half seeing it very frequently. In contrast, Over 60 percent of Democrats saw such news at least somewhat often.

According to a survey led in February in France, 74 percent of all respondents considered themselves able to identify false news they read on social media. Younger respondents trusted more their own ability to recognize misinformation than older ones, with 17 percent among them claiming that they absolutely were unable to do so.

According to a survey conducted on digital news in the Philippines between January and February 2024, 82 percent of respondents stated that they used online channels (including social media) as a source of news. Print was the least popular news source, with 13 percent of respondents saying they consumed news from print media.

As of February 2024, LBC Radio talk show host James O'Brien was the most mentioned individual news-related social media outlet in the United Kingdom. O'Brien had around 1.2 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 717,000 followers on YouTube during the measured period. Political correspondent Robert Peston ranked second, and had a total of 1.3 million followers on X. American podcaster Joe Rogan, with 15 million followers on YouTube, was the third most mentioned individual news related social media personality among UK respondents. as of early 2024.

A study examining perspectives on the news media from over 40 countries revealed that levels of trust differed notably around the world. Scandinavians in particular had greater trust in the news media than citizens from other parts of the world, with 69 percent of Finns trusting the news, along with 57 percent of Danes and 55 percent of Norwegians. Who trusts the news the least? South Korea and Taiwan were placed among the lowest in the world when it came to how much consumers trusted the news media, alongside Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria. Media sources in some of these countries can be considered to be insufficiently independent from the establishment. Just 23 percent of Greek consumers had trust in the news media, the lowest among all countries in the report. What affects trust in news? One factor which can greatly affect trust in news is the outlet used. Globally, social media is seen as a less reliable source of news, and in the EU radio and television are viewed as more dependable. In the current climate of fake news and polarizing political events, young people around the world are having a tough time relying on the mass media , although this attitude is also seen among older generations.

In 2022, the state of Telangana in India had the highest number of fake news propagation incidents compared to the rest of the country, with approximately 81 cases registered with the authorities. The country recorded a total of around 230 such incidents that year. This category of crime fell within the scope of the Information Technology Act, which came under the purview of the section 505 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and special and local laws (SLL).

As of February 2024, 38 percent of internet users surveyed in Brazil said they had accessed news on WhatsApp. The same share of respondents used YouTube for that purpose.

According to a survey conducted on digital news in the Philippines between January and February 2024, 61 percent of respondents stated that they used Facebook as a news source. Other popular social media platforms for consuming news were YouTube and Facebook Messenger, which were used by 45 percent and 26 percent of respondents, respectively.

In 2024, Facebook was the leading social media platform for news in Thailand, which was used by 64 percent of respondents. Other leading platforms for news consumption were YouTube and LINE. LINE, a popular messaging app in Thailand, has also recently created the ‘LINE Today’ section as a news source within the LINE app. Social media as a news source for the younger generation Social media is an efficient way for audiences to access news and share content, especially since it is less regulated than other forms of media in Thailand. Popular social media platforms among Thais such as Facebook and YouTube are the major sites for audiences to join in on live events and exercise freedom of speech. The LINE messaging application is also the main platform for users to share the news. Additionally, Twitter and TikTok are playing an increasingly significant role in shaping how news and sentiment on recent events are discussed, such as the recent youth-led protests in Thailand. The fast and unregulated form of communication on social media, therefore, has cultivated a preference for online news among the younger generation in Thailand. The rise of fake news   The ease of sharing news and stories through social media has also led to an issue of fake news in Thailand. Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the political movements in the country have led to a proliferation of fake news. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has been one of the major causes of the increase in the spread of fake news, especially regarding the information on COVID-19 preventative measures. Since fake news has been rampant in the country, there have been legal restrictions on how content is created and shared in Thailand.

In December 2024, the news website with the most monthly visits in the United States was nytimes.com, with a total of 463.07 million monthly visits in that month. In second place was cnn.com with close to 357 million visits, followed by foxnews.com with just over a quater of a million. Online news consumption in the U.S. Americans get their news in a variety of ways, but social media is an increasingly popular option. A survey on social media news consumption revealed that 55 percent of Twitter users regularly used the site for news, and Facebook and Reddit were also popular for news among their users. Interestingly though, social media is the least trusted news sources in the United States. News and trust Trust in news sources has become increasingly important to the American news consumer amidst the spread of fake news, and the public are more vocal about whether or not they have faith in a source to report news correctly. Ongoing discussions about the credibility, accuracy and bias of news networks, anchors, TV show hosts, and news media professionals mean that those looking to keep up to date tend to be more cautious than ever before. In general, news audiences are skeptical. In 2020, just nine percent of respondents to a survey investigating the perceived objectivity of the mass media reported having a great deal of trust in the media to report news fully, accurately, and fairly.

During a survey carried out in Brazil in early 2024, 51 percent of responding internet users said they used social media as a source of news. Approximately 74 percent of respondents mentioned the internet altogether – including social media – while 50 percent listed television as their news source. Over 96 percent of households in Brazil had a TV set in 2019.

When asked about the different social networks used to access news as of 2023, a majority of the surveyed respondents in India stated YouTube, and WhatsApp as their main sources at 54 and 48 percent, respectively. X (formerly Twitter) had the lowest popularity for news access among Indians in that year.