Social media was by far the most popular news platform among 18 to 34-year-olds in the United States, with 47 percent of respondents to a survey held in August 2022 saying that they used social networks for news on a daily basis. By comparison, adults over 65 years old mostly used network news to keep up to date.

The decline of newspapers In the past, the reasons to regularly go out and purchase a print newspaper were many. Used not only for news but also apartment hunting, entertainment, and job searches (among other things), newspapers once served multiple purposes. This is no longer the case, with first television and then the internet taking care of consumer needs once covered by printed papers. Indeed, the paid circulation of daily weekday newspapers in the United States has fallen dramatically since the 1980s with no sign of future improvement.

News consumption habits

A survey on news consumption by gender found that 50 percent of women use either online-only news sites or social media for news each day, and 51 percent of male respondents said the same. Social media was by far the most used daily news platform among U.S. Millennials, and the same was true of Gen Z. One appeal of online news is that it often comes at no cost to the consumer. Paying for news found via digital outlets is not yet commonplace in the United States, with only 21 percent of U.S. consumers responding to a study held in early 2021 reporting having paid for online news content in the last year.

In 2025, Facebook remained the most-used social platform for news in the United States, with 32 percent of respondents reporting they accessed news on it. YouTube followed closely at 30 percent, recording a slight increase from the previous year. X (formerly Twitter) saw the most notable growth, rising by eight percent to 23 percent.

A global survey conducted in 2025 revealed that nearly half of TikTok users paid attention to news shared by creators or personalities, including celebrities and influencers, when encountering news content on the platform. In contrast, just 36 percent of TikTok users engaged with news from mainstream outlets and professional journalists.

According to the results of a global survey held in early 2025, among selected major media markets, consumers in Brazil were the least likely to use print media to get their news, with just *** percent reporting consuming print news compared to ** percent of respondents from India. Meanwhile, news from social media was most popular in South Africa, and TV consumption was highest in Germany.

Social media is one of the go-to news sources in the United States – over one third of U.S. adults responding to a 2022 survey got their news from social media platforms every day, and a further 22 percent did so a few times or at least once per week. After the surge in social media news consumption in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, daily engagement fell in 2021, but the increase the following year suggests that daily news access on social networks could continue to grow in years to come.

The most popular social sites for news

An annual report surveying U.S. adults from 2019 to 2022 revealed that Facebook was the most popular social network used for news, followed by YouTube. Important to note here though is that TikTok was not included in the survey question for those years, a platform increasingly popular with younger generations. Whilst the share of adults regularly using TikTok for news aged 50 years or above was just five percent, among those aged between 18 and 29 years the figure was over five times higher.

Meanwhile, Twitter is journalists’ preferred social media site, with the share who use Twitter for their job at almost 70 percent. Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter however, some journalists raised concerns about the future of free speech on the platform.

Gen Z and social media news consumption

A 2022 survey found that half of all Gen Z respondents used social media for news every day. Gen Z is driving growth in social media news usage, a trend which will continue if the younger consumers belonging to this generation increase their engagement with news as they age.

Data from a survey held in August 2022 in the United States revealed that the most popular news source among millennials was social media, with 45 percent of respondents reporting daily news consumption on social networks. This was more than double the share who got their news via radio. When it comes to trust, though, social media does not fare well.

Social media and news consumption

As adults of all ages spend more and more time on social media, news consumption via this avenue is likely to increase, but something which could affect this trend is the lack of trust in the news consumers encounter on social platforms. Although now the preferred option for younger audiences, social networks are among the least trusted news sources in the United States, and concerns about fake news remain prevalent.

Young audiences and fake news

Inaccurate news is a major problem which worsened during the 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns and the COVID-19 pandemic. A global study found that most Gen Z and Millennial news consumers ignored fake coronavirus news on social media, but almost 20 percent interacted with such posts in the comments section, and over seven percent shared the content. Younger news consumers in the United States were also the most likely to report feeling overwhelmed by COVID-19 news. As younger audiences were the most likely to get their updates on the outbreak via social media, this also made them the most susceptible to fake news, and younger generations are also the most prone to ‘doomscrolling’, an addictive act where the reader pursues and digests multiple negative or upsetting news articles in one sitting.

According to data gathered in late 2024, ** percent of adults aged 65 years or over watched news on TV at least sometimes, more than double the share of adults under ** who did the same. Older news consumers were more likely to turn to print and TV than their younger counterparts, although also increased their news consumption via podcasts.

During a 2025 survey, ** percent of respondents from Nigeria stated that they used social media as a source of news. In comparison, just ** 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 ** percent of adults in Europe considered social networks to be trustworthy in this respect, yet more than ** 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.

A survey conducted in August 2022 found that Gen Z news consumers most frequently get their news from social media, with 50 percent of respondents reporting they used social networks as their news source on a daily basis. There was a general preference for online news sources rather than offline outlets among Gen Z, with only five percent saying that they read local newspapers every day.
News consumption: Gen Z vs. millennials The same 2022 study showed that whilst there were similarities between news consumption among millennials and Gen Z, there were also stark differences between the two groups. Gen Zers were significantly less likely to listen to the radio or watch television for news, and close to 60 percent said that they never read newspapers. Meanwhile, approximately 20 percent of Millennials reported listening to radio news and 15 percent watched cable or network TV on a daily basis.

Despite these differences, both Gen Z and millennial news audiences both demonstrated a clear preference for using social media to get their news. By contrast, Boomers were the least likely group to use social media for news, generally preferring network news for keeping up to date. Indeed, social networks are not without their problems, with consumers growing concerned about the news they find there. Social media and news Except for podcasts, social media is the least trusted news source in the United States. Fake news circulates there easily as consumers either unknowingly or deliberately share such content, and younger generations, who are the heaviest social media users, are at the highest risk of encountering biased, inaccurate, and untrue stories.

A survey conducted in the United States in August 2022 found that white adults were the least frequent users of social media as a news source, with a third stating that they never used social networks for news. Conversely, Black Americans were the most likely to use social media for news on a daily basis.

According to a global survey held in the first half of 2021, ** percent of respondents aged 15 to 24 years old used social media to stay updated about news and current affairs, making social media the most used news source among respondents in that age bracket. By contrast, just ** respondents aged 40 years and older used social networks as a means of obtaining news, preferring to watch TV news. Newspapers were the least popular news source, followed by friends and family.

In a survey conducted in February 2022, ** percent of Southeast Asian respondents aged between 16 and 25 chose social media as their preferred place for news consumption. In comparison, only ** percent of Southeast Asian respondents in this age group stated to read physical newspapers for their usual news consumption.

Data from a survey held in the United States in late 2023 found that Latino adults generally preferred either social media or television for getting news, whereas only a very small share got news via radio or print outlets. News websites and apps were the preference for ** percent of respondents, with search being similarly popular.

According to a survey conducted in 2024, ** percent of Australian respondents from Generation Z identified social media as their primary news source. In contrast, only **** percent of participants from Generation Z stated that print media was their primary source of news.  News sources in Australia To stay informed about current events, Australians use diverse media sources, both online and offline. As of 2022, traditional news sources such as television and radio remained important. Approximately ** percent of Australians accessed news through television on a weekly basis. Social media has also emerged as a prominent news source in recent years. As a result, mobile devices have become a popular medium for accessing information. According to a digital news survey conducted in February 2022, approximately ** percent of Australian respondents accessed news through their mobile phones. This suggests a shift in news consumption patterns, highlighting the need for news organizations to adapt to the evolving media landscape in Australia. Trust in Australian media sources Trust in the news has become a significant concern in Australia. A news consumption survey conducted in February 2022 showed that approximately ** percent of respondents had confidence in the trustworthiness of news most of the time, while ** percent of respondents indicated a lack of belief. Low trust can be attributed to factors such as misinformation, biased reporting, and a lack of transparency in news organizations. Building credibility and maintaining accuracy in news reporting will be essential to maintaining public trust in the Australian news landscape as traditional media gradually falls out of favor and digital platforms become more influential.

Cable TV news consumption is on the decline. Adults aged between 18 and 34 years old were the least likely to use cable TV networks as a source of news, with a survey held in the United States in August 2022 revealing that 45 percent never did so. Younger consumers preferred social media sites for keeping up to date, and whilst their older peers turned to cable news more frequently, network news was still a more popular daily news source.

Falling cable news ratings

Back in 2017, FOX News, the leading cable news network in the United States, had an average of almost 470 thousand viewers in the primetime demo. With the exception of 2020 where news consumption soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, ratings have fallen consecutively each year, and by 2022, FOX’s average viewer count sank to 341 thousand. CNN and MSNBC saw even greater drops in their audiences, with the latter seeing its ratings fall by more than 2.5 times between 2017 and 2022.

Why the drop in ratings?

Cable and satellite TV is no longer the norm: only adults aged 60 or above express a preference for traditional TV over video streaming services and apps, and among certain age groups the share who preferred the latter was over 70 percent. Indeed, a 2022 survey found that the majority of Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X did not have a cable subscription. The main reason for cutting the cord was price, with over a third of adults saying that cable was simply too expensive.

According to a study from April to May 2023, the most common way of consuming local news was via television, with 31.8 percent of respondents saying they watched local news on TV every day. Social media was also a popular option, whereas local news from newspapers and radio were the least popular choices.

Any internet was the most used platform for news consumption in the United Kingdom among all nations in 2024. However, television was also a very popular choice and could soon overtake internet as the main news source. Meanwhile, social media was more popular in Scotland and England than in Wales or Northern Ireland. Where do TV audiences get their news? BBC One remained the most popular TV news channel in the UK that year, with an audience reach of ** percent. BBC One, which is part of the television service portfolio of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), has held the lion’s share of TV news watching hours in the UK for over a decade. Online news platforms are stealing the show While television remains the leading news source among adults, younger audiences primarily turn to the internet for news consumption. According to a recent survey, almost ** percent of UK news consumers between the ages of 18 to 24 considered the internet their leading news platform, and as of 2020, roughly ** percent of the UK population read or downloaded news content online. Among those who got their news coverage from online sources, BBC News stood out as the leading online news brand accessed in the UK that year.

In terms of average time spent each day, TV is the second most used form of media in the United States, with adults spending *** minutes (more than ***** hours) watching television on a daily basis according to a study undertaken in April 2021. Digital formats took up the majority of U.S. adults' daily media consumption time, while for newspapers and magazines the average time spent was just *** and ***** minutes respectively. Is print dying? The reluctance among many print publications to publish their circulation figures tells a story in itself – print consumption is not what it used to be. Whilst many newspapers and magazines have made the move online, those which have not, have fallen behind, and in an increasingly digitized market risk disappearing almost totally from their audience’s view. Interestingly, ** percent adults who took part in a study on print media in 2018 admitted that they felt indifferent towards print dying out, and **** percent even said that they were happy at the prospect of the medium’s extinction. Despite the majority of respondents stating that they would be sad if print media became obsolete, a resurgence of the print medium looks to be unlikely. Book store and news dealer sales in the U.S. have been on the decline since 2007, and even long-established newspapers like The New York Times have had to protect themselves from the decline of print media by shifting their focus to digital. Subscriptions to The New York Times’ digital only news product have almost tripled since the end of 2014, evidencing the demand for such products and their potential success. Digital advertising and subscriptions make up a significant amount of the newspaper’s revenue and are necessary for its continued success. Had the NYT stuck to print, the company’s revenue would likely be very different. How has media consumption changed?  Since 2011, the daily time spent with major media in the United States has increased by ** minutes, with the average amount of daily time spent amounting to over half the hours in a day. Digital media is taking over, with music streaming services like Deezer and Spotify providing hours of entertainment and constantly expanding catalogues of music available at the click of a button. Revenue from music streaming in the U.S. reached 7.4 billion dollars in 2018, an increase of six billion in just five years, and the TV market is undergoing a similar change. Companies like Netflix and Sling TV are growing whilst traditional TV providers are losing subscribers. Streaming revenue, subscriptions and consumption are set to increase exponentially, whereas traditional media like books, print magazines and newspapers are less popular and have been exhibiting negative growth, a trend which is likely to continue in years to come.

A survey on online news consumption behavior conducted in India in 2023 revealed that YouTube was the leading platform for online news consumption, as indicated by ** percent of the respondents. Social media was the next most used platform among Indian online news consumers, followed by chat apps. It was worth noting that news publishers had yet to realize their market potential, with only ** percent of respondents using the apps and websites of these outlets to access the news.

According to a global survey conducted in 2025, nearly half of X (formerly Twitter) users paid attention to news from mainstream news outlets and journalists, while an equal share engaged with content from creators and personalities, such as celebrities and influencers. This indicates a balanced split in attention between traditional media and individual voices on the platform.