Research shows that social media and video networks have become the main source of U.S. news, surpassing traditional TV channels and news sites.
More than half (54%) of people get news from networks like Facebook, X and YouTube — more than TV (50%) as well as news websites and apps (48%), according to the Reuters Institute.
“The rise of social media and personality-based news is not unique to the United States, but it seems to change faster than other countries and has a greater impact,” a report found.
Podcaster Joe Rogan is the broadest personality, with nearly a quarter (22%) of the population saying they encountered his news or comments last week.
The rise of social video and personality-driven news is “another major challenge for traditional publishers,” said the report’s author Nic Newman.
The institute also highlights the trend of some politicians bringing time to empathy with online hosts rather than mainstream interviewers.
It says populist politicians around the world are “increasingly able to bypass traditional journalism and instead support friendly partisan media, “personality” and “influential people” who often get special access but rarely ask difficult questions, many involving spreading false narratives or worse.”
Despite their popularity, online influencers and personalities are named by almost half of the world (47%) as the primary source of false or misleading information – keeping them at a level with politicians.
The report also noted that the usage of News X is “stable or increased in many markets”, the biggest boost in the United States.
It added that since Elon Musk took over the network in 2022, “more right-leaning people, especially young people, have flocked to the network, and some progressive audiences have left or used it less frequently”.
In the United States, the proportion of self-identification is three times that of Musk after he took over.
In the UK, the right-wing X audience has almost doubled.
It said competitor networks such as Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon “has little impact globally, with no more than 2% of the news impact.”
Other key findings about news sources:
- Tiktok is the fastest-growing social and video network, with 17% of people worldwide spending on news, up four percentage points since last year.
- Using AI chatbots to get news is on the rise, with the population under 25 people twice as many as the entire population.
- But most people think that AI will make news less transparent, accurate and trustworthy.
- All generations still reward tracks with accuracy, even if they don’t use them as frequently as before
The report has been in 14 years and has conducted a survey of nearly 100,000 people in 48 countries.
