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.

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.

A survey revealed that most U.S. adults believed AI-written news articles would be a bad thing, with 78 percent of all respondents saying that they felt this way, according to the results of a January 2023 survey. Younger consumers were the least likely to think this - 19 percent said they thought this would be a good thing, compared to just seven percent of their older peers aged 55 years or older.

The most popular online news brands in the United States as of February 2024 were Fox News online and CNN.com. A study found that 18 percent and 17 percent of respondents to a survey had visited those sites respectively for news in the last week. Also high in the ranking were Yahoo! News and The New York Times online. Support for and trust in both sources varies significantly according to the political affiliation of audiences, particularly among Democrats and Republicans. News and politics A survey revealed that more than 40 percent of Republicans reported not trusting The New York Times, whereas The NYT is one of the most trusted news sources among Democrats. The same study found that over 60 percent of Democrats did not trust Fox News**. The perceived credibility of major news sources in the United States changes annually and is often influenced by election campaigns and the voting persuasions of the American public. However, whilst most Democrats believe the mass media to be objective in its reporting, very few Republicans feel the same. In 2020, just 10 percent of Republicans trusted news organizations to report fully, accurately, and fairly. Trust in news The most trusted news sources in the United States are radio, network news, and newspapers, despite online outlets being used more frequently by younger audiences. Social media and podcasts are considered the least trustworthy news platforms by all American voters, though again, the survey indicated that Republicans are generally more distrusting of mass media news than voters of other political parties.

In 2024, Facebook remained the most popular social media network for news worldwide, with 26 percent of respondents to a survey held in February that year saying that they had used the platform for news in the last week. Usage decreased however from previous years, whereas TikTok news consumption is on the up and was eight times higher in 2024 than in 2020.

According to the results of a global survey held in early 2024, among selected major media markets, consumers in Brazil were the least likely to use print media to get their news, with just 11 percent reporting consuming print news compared to 16 percent of respondents from the United States. Meanwhile, news from social media was most popular in South Africa, and print consumption was highest in India.

A survey from July 2022 asked Americans how they felt about the effects of bias in news on their ability to sort out facts, and revealed that 50 percent felt there was so much bias in the news that it was difficult to discern what was factual from information that was not. This was the highest share who said so across all years shown, and at the same time, the 2022 survey showed the lowest share of respondents who believed there were enough sources to be able to sort out fact from fiction.

As of March of 2018, around 52 percent of Americans felt that online news websites regularly report fake news stories in the United States. Another 34 percent of respondents stated that they believed that online news websites occasionally report fake news stories. Just nine percent of adults said that they did not believe that fake news stories were being reported online.

Fake news

Coined by Donald Trump, the term ‘fake news’ is used to describe news stories or even entire networks believed to be spreading false information. Increasingly used by members of government and citizens on both sides of the political spectrum, the term is now a staple in debates regarding freedom of the press, corruption, and media bias. People of all ages now believe that over 60 percent of the news that they see on social media is fake and express similar concern over the accuracy of traditional news sources. While a cynical perspective regarding news and reporting may be positive in terms of holding guilty outlets accountable and ensuring responsible reporting, the fake news phenomenon has extended much farther than pure skepticism. As of 2018, around 35 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of Independents perceived the media to be an enemy of the American people.

A survey held in the United States in early 2023 found that most surveyed adults believe there will be a time where entire news articles are written by artificial intelligence, with 72 percent stating that this was what they expected to happen. Respondents under the age of 55 were marginally surer that solely AI-written news articles will be part of the future of news.

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.

According to a global survey held in the first half of 2021, 45 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 17 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.

A study held in 2024 revealed that 59 percent of X (formerly known as Twitter) users regularly used X for news. By contrast, users of major platforms Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube were less inclined to get their news from those sites, though usage of TikTok for news increased by 30 percent between 2020 and 2024, with the platform especially popular among younger audiences.

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.

A 2024 survey revealed that audiences using social networks for news engage with news sources differently depending on the network; for example 53 percent of X users devote most of their attention to mainstream news, whereas the same was true of just 34 percent of TikTok and Snapchat users. The latter networks were used more for news from personalities and celebrities or influencers, with Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube generally the most likely platforms for mainstream news.

According to a survey conducted in 2023, 20 percent of adults in the United States who used social media to get news stated that convenience was their main reason for doing so. Speed and interaction with people were the two next most popular reasons for using social networking platforms as a source of news, accounting for nine and six percent of respondents, respectively. Smaller shares of adults said they liked that the news was up-to-date, the content or format, and the variety of sources or stories available. Overall, seven percent of U.S. adults who got their news on social media said they did not like anything about the experience.

In 2024, 31 percent of respondents to a survey in the United States said that they used Facebook for news. Facebook remains the leading social media network for news consumption among U.S. consumers. In second place was YouTube, with 29 percent, marking a jump from the previous year.

Social media was the most popular news platform amongst Americans as of February 2022 and was used most regularly by women, with 39 percent of female respondents to a survey saying that they used social networks for news on a daily basis. Meanwhile, twice the share of men than women reported reading newspapers each day.

News audiences in Norway were the most likely to pay for online news according to a global study on paid digital news content consumption, with 40 percent having paid for news online in the last year. Ranked second was Sweden, followed by Australia, Finland, and the United States.

With the changing media landscape leading to more and more consumers turning to digital sources to access the news, publishers are adding paywalls on their sites. However, not all consumers are equally inclined to pay for digital news content. UK news audiences for example were substantially less likely to pay for online news than U.S. consumers.

Why pay for online news?

The reasons for paying for news are diverse and dependent on various factors. The digitalization of news allows stories to be shared and disseminated on a global scale, but not all sources are reliable or credible. For consumers, it is often difficult to identify trustworthy news sources, and as such which sources they would happily pay for.

Consumers may also be reluctant to pay for news because of the sheer amount of free content online. Whilst the availability of free content made news more accessible, at the same time this impacts journalists and publishers. In Finland for example, this has led to a correlated decrease in sales of printed content. As traditional print publications move online, there is also a growing reliance on advertising to generate revenue. Users are encouraged to pay for access to restricted material as publishers limit content to members only. Consumer’s willingness to pay was seen to be dependent on content, with Americans happier to pay for news than features or e-magazines.

Impact of the coronavirus

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing millions across the globe to stay at home, having access to digital news has never been more crucial, accordingly an increase of subscribers paying for premium news content could be expected. However the health crisis has also led to economic hardship for many, which may instead lead to people cutting out luxuries such as paid news subscriptions. In the UK for example, 2020 saw a decrease in people paying for news content compared to the previous year. With the pandemic dominating news reports, 2020 also saw audiences experience news fatigue, and after a year of news coverage saturated with coronavirus updates, consumers may feel the need to switch off entirely.

As reported by a survey conducted in 2024 on digital news consumption, over 70 percent of respondents from India stated that they sourced their news online, which included social media, making it a popular form of accessing news. In comparison, 40 percent of respondents stated that they used print media as a news source during that period.

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 75 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 80 percent of UK news consumers between the ages of 18 to 24 considered the internet their leading news platform, and as of 2020, roughly 70 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.