Global Courant
According to a report, the next generation is entrusting their news-gathering and fact-checking to TikTok and Instagram personalities rather than the mainstream media and journalists.
A study conducted for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, part of the British University of Oxford, found that 55% of TikTok users and 52% of Instagram users get their news from “personalities” on the respective platforms .
The number of people who get their news from the mainstream media and journalists on those same platforms drops to just 33% on TikTok and 42% on Instagram, according to the 2023 Digital News Report.
Nic Newman, a senior research associate at the Reuters Institute, wrote in the report: “Perhaps the most striking findings in this year’s report relate to the changing nature of social media, characterized in part by declining engagement with traditional networks such as Facebook and the rise of TikTok and a range of other video-led networks.”
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More young people are trusting their news to personalities on social media apps or regular users on the platforms, rather than typical mainstream media outlets or journalists. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Young people are now more influenced than ever by “influencers” on the platform for trends, advice and now even news, Newman says.
“Our data shows more clearly than ever how this shift is strongly influenced by habits of the youngest generations, who have grown up with social media and today often pay more attention to influencers or celebrities than to journalists, even when it comes to news,” He wrote.
This trend was not reflected on older platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, where those with access to those platforms chose to follow mainstream news outlets rather than personalities for their news, 43-38 and 55-42 respectively.
People under 35 spend less time watching or engaging with the news than in previous years. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
TikTok also stood out uniquely among the list of social media platforms including YouTube and Snapchat as more users (44%) trust “regular people” for getting their news. No other platform was above 37%.
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The 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report also found that more young people are choosing social media to bring them the news, rather than accessing news websites or apps directly.
TikTok and Instagram logos are displayed on phone screens in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on Nov. 14, 2019. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In 2018, almost 1 in 3 young people (32%) chose regular media websites or apps to receive their news online. This figure has dropped to just over 1 in 5 (22%) by 2023.
Conversely, the number of young people who chose social media to receive their news was 23% in 2018, rising to 30% this year.
Only 1 in 5 young people (22%) choose regular media websites or apps to receive their news online. (Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
By comparison, most adults over the age of 35 (52%) chose to access online news by going directly to a news website or app. Only 24% of people between 18 and 24 did the same.
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The report concluded that young people have become increasingly critical of the news media, which are widely controlled by politicians and others.
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute, said in a statement that these shifts represent “a much more fundamental change” for news outlets and digital platforms.
