Fifty-Four Percent

Fifty-four percent of people worldwide now get their news from social media and video platforms. That figure, published Tuesday in the Reuters Institute's annual Digital News Report, marks the first time new platforms have overtaken traditional media as the most widely used source of news globally. Including AI chatbots like ChatGPT, the number rises to 56 percent.[1]

Television news stands at 52 percent. Newspaper websites and apps at 51 percent. Radio at 21 percent. The margin is slim, but the direction has been obvious for years. Jim Egan, the report's lead author, put it precisely: "It is better to think of this more as a drift rather than a shift, but it is nevertheless an important moment."[2]

The data comes from online surveys of nearly 100'000 people across 48 countries, conducted by YouGov earlier this year. The report runs to 180 pages and is one of the most closely tracked barometers of how the world consumes information.

Among 18-to-24-year-olds, half say social media or video platforms are their main source of news. Television holds the lead only among people over 45. Not a single age group named traditional media apps and websites as their first port of call for news.[3]

The platforms themselves breed different habits. On X and YouTube, users go looking for news deliberately. On Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, they stumble across it while doing something else. The distinction matters. Incidental exposure to information, filtered through algorithms designed for engagement rather than accuracy, is how conspiracy theories and misread headlines travel fastest.

Then there is the money problem. Just 17 percent of respondents said they pay for news online. Meanwhile, Google and Meta capture the vast majority of digital advertising revenue. The report's language on this is plain: the old business models are under threat, and the scale of the challenge in funding reporting is clear.

Trust in news has also hit an all-time low. Only 37 percent of respondents said they trust most news most of the time. That number has been falling for years across democracies, and the trend shows no sign of reversing.[4]

AI chatbots are entering the picture quickly. Ten percent of respondents now use them for news weekly, up from seven percent last year. The report calls generative AI "the biggest 360-degree challenge for today's news leaders and policymakers." How that challenge is met, and by whom, will shape what people believe they know about the world for decades to come.

Yesterday, the UK announced a total ban on social media for children under 16. Luxembourg gave the EU twelve months to act before going national. These are responses to the same phenomenon: a medium that now reaches more people than television, radio, and print combined, with business models that reward outrage over understanding, and with trust ratings that would bankrupt any other industry. The drift has arrived.