Social media and video networks reached 54% of weekly news use in 2026, passing television at 52% for the first time. The shift is not only about platforms: 30% now name social or video as their main source of news, up from 22% five years ago, and 12% use nothing else. Trust fell to 37%, its lowest since 2015. Meanwhile AI chatbots entered the picture at 10% weekly. The figures below come from the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026, covering 48 markets and about 97,520 respondents, and from Pew Research Center’s US series.
TL;DR
- Social and video networks hit 54% of weekly news use (Reuters Institute)
- Television sat at 52%, news sites and apps at 51% (Reuters Institute)
- 30% call social or video their main news source, up from 22% (Reuters Institute)
- 12% use social or video networks only, double 2020’s 6% (Reuters Institute)
- Facebook leads platforms globally at 43% (Reuters Institute)
- 52% of 18-24s name social, video, or AI as their main source (Reuters Institute)
- 56% of 18-24s never regularly read a newspaper (Reuters Institute)
- 46% got news from creators of some kind in the past week (Reuters Institute)
- AI chatbot news use doubled its base to 10% weekly (Reuters Institute)
- Trust in news fell to 37%, lowest since 2015 (Reuters Institute)
- News avoidance held at 42% (Reuters Institute)
- Payment for online news stayed flat at 17% (Reuters Institute)
- 53% of US adults at least sometimes get news on social media (Pew)
- 55% of TikTok users get news there, up from 22% in 2020 (Pew)
1. The Crossover Everyone Expected Finally Printed
Three sources now sit within three points of each other, which is the real finding. Social media and video networks reached 54%, television 52%, and news websites and apps 51% — a cluster, not a rout.
What separates them is direction. Radio at 21% and print at 16% are no longer competing for the same position, and the social figure rises to 56% when AI chatbots are folded in. The number that describes the structural change better than the headline is exclusivity: 12% of people now use social and video networks as their only news source, double the 6% recorded in 2020.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Social and video networks | 54% | Reuters Institute |
| Same, including AI chatbots | 56% | Reuters Institute |
| Television | 52% | Reuters Institute |
| News websites and apps | 51% | Reuters Institute |
| Radio | 21% | Reuters Institute |
| 16% | Reuters Institute | |
| Social or video as main source | 30% | Reuters Institute |
| Same, five years earlier | 22% | Reuters Institute |
| Using social or video only | 12% | Reuters Institute |
| Same, in 2020 | 6% | Reuters Institute |
Source: Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2026 executive summary.
2. The Platform Ranking Depends on Which Country You Ask About
Facebook still leads globally and the US ranking is tighter than the global one. Facebook reaches 43% for news worldwide against YouTube’s 34%, but in the United States the two are nearly level at 38% and 35%.
The two datasets are not interchangeable. The Reuters Institute asks about news use in the past week across 48 markets; Pew asks US adults whether they regularly get news on a site. Different questions, different bases, similar shape. X’s decline is a US story in particular, down seven points there.
| Platform | Global weekly news use | US adults regularly | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 43% | 38% | Reuters Institute / Pew | |
| YouTube | 34% | 35% | Reuters Institute / Pew |
| 26% | 20% | Reuters Institute / Pew | |
| TikTok | 20% | 20% | Reuters Institute / Pew |
| X | — | 12% | Pew |
| — | 9% | Pew | |
| Nextdoor | — | 6% | Pew |
| — | 5% | Pew | |
| Threads | — | 3% | Pew |
| Bluesky | — | 2% | Pew |
WhatsApp’s steady growth since 2014 is its own pattern, tracked in the WhatsApp figures.
Source: Pew Research Center, Social Media and News Fact Sheet.
3. Small Platforms, Dense News Use
Reach and intensity are different measures, and the gap between them explains why X keeps mattering more than its size suggests. 57% of X users regularly get news there — the highest concentration of any platform — while X reaches only 12% of US adults.
TikTok’s shift is the sharpest in the series: the share of its users getting news on the platform went from 22% in 2020 to 55%, a near-tripling while the app was also growing. That is a change in what the platform is for, not just who is on it.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| X users who get news there | 57% | Pew |
| Truth Social users | 55% | Pew |
| TikTok users | 55% | Pew |
| TikTok users, 2020 | 22% | Pew |
| WhatsApp users | 15% | Pew |
| US adults getting news on social media | 53% | Pew |
| Of those, “often” | 21% | Pew |
| Of those, “never” | 27% | Pew |
Source: Pew Research Center, Social Media and News Fact Sheet.
4. Under-25s Are Already a Separate Market
The generational split is not a gradient, it is a step. 52% of 18-24s name social media, video networks, or AI as their main source of news, against 44% of 25-34s — and the drop-off continues sharply with age.
The print figure for that group is the one to keep: 56% say they never regularly read a newspaper. In the US, 18-29s reach for TikTok at 43% and Instagram at 40% for news, roughly double the all-adult rates for both.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 18-24s, social/video/AI as main source | 52% | Reuters Institute |
| 25-34s, same | 44% | Reuters Institute |
| 18-24s never regularly reading newspapers | 56% | Reuters Institute |
| US 18-29s, news on TikTok | 43% | Pew |
| US 18-29s, news on Instagram | 40% | Pew |
| US 18-29s, news on X | 21% | Pew |
| Under-35s using AI for news | 16% | Reuters Institute |
The same cohort split runs through the broader Gen Z media data.
Source: Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2026 executive summary.
5. Creators Are Now a Category, Not an Anecdote
Nearly half the surveyed audience encountered news from a creator of some kind in the past week. 46% got news from creators generally and 27% from news-focused creators specifically, which puts personality-led news above several legacy formats.
The ceiling shows up in the dependence numbers: only 13% say creators meet most of their news needs and 3% use creators exclusively. Creators are supplementing the diet rather than replacing it, at least at this point in the series.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Got news from any creators | 46% | Reuters Institute |
| From news-focused creators | 27% | Reuters Institute |
| Most news needs met by creators | 13% | Reuters Institute |
| Using creators only | 3% | Reuters Institute |
| Weekly online news video | 77% | Reuters Institute |
| Weekly news podcasts | 11% | Reuters Institute |
News podcasts held flat at 11%, against the wider podcasting numbers.
Source: GIJN summary of the 2026 Digital News Report.
6. AI Chatbots Entered the Chart Low and Distrusted
The first thing to note about AI news use is the size. 10% use an AI chatbot for news weekly, up from 7% — real growth on a small base, not a takeover.
Trust is the constraint. 20% trust AI-generated answers about news, statistically alongside the 22% who trust news on social media, and both sit far below the 37% general trust figure. The Reuters Institute counts chatbots separately from social and video, which is why the combined source figure rises from 54% to 56% when they are included.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly AI chatbot news use | 10% | Reuters Institute |
| Previous year | 7% | Reuters Institute |
| Under-35s | 16% | Reuters Institute |
| Trust in AI answers about news | 20% | Reuters Institute |
| Trust in news on social media | 22% | Reuters Institute |
| Overall trust in news | 37% | Reuters Institute |
Source: Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2026 executive summary.
7. Trust Fell, Avoidance Held, Payment Stalled
Three numbers describe the commercial problem better than any traffic chart. Trust in news fell to 37%, the lowest since 2015; news avoidance held at 42%; and payment for online news stayed flat at 17%.
The flatness of payment matters more than its level. Consumption moved substantially in the same period, so the audience is redistributing without the revenue following. Norway remains the outlier at 40%, roughly two and a half times the 20-country basket, and 62% report concern about distinguishing real from fake content online.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Trust most news most of the time | 37% | Reuters Institute |
| News avoidance | 42% | Reuters Institute |
| Change year over year | flat | Reuters Institute |
| Concerned about fake content | 62% | Reuters Institute |
| Paying for online news | 17% | Reuters Institute |
| Norway | 40% | Reuters Institute |
| Sweden | 32% | Reuters Institute |
| Preferring impartial news | 48% | Reuters Institute |
The fake-content concern connects directly to the misinformation data.
Source: Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2026 executive summary.
Summary: Social Media News by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Social and video networks | 54% | Reuters Institute |
| Television | 52% | Reuters Institute |
| News websites and apps | 51% | Reuters Institute |
| Radio | 21% | Reuters Institute |
| 16% | Reuters Institute | |
| Social or video as main source | 30% | Reuters Institute |
| Social or video only | 12% | Reuters Institute |
| Facebook, global | 43% | Reuters Institute |
| YouTube, global | 34% | Reuters Institute |
| Instagram, global | 26% | Reuters Institute |
| TikTok, global | 20% | Reuters Institute |
| US adults on social media for news | 53% | Pew |
| X users getting news there | 57% | Pew |
| TikTok users getting news there | 55% | Pew |
| 18-24s, social/video/AI main source | 52% | Reuters Institute |
| 18-24s never reading newspapers | 56% | Reuters Institute |
| News from any creators | 46% | Reuters Institute |
| Weekly AI chatbot news use | 10% | Reuters Institute |
| Trust in news | 37% | Reuters Institute |
| News avoidance | 42% | Reuters Institute |
| Paying for online news | 17% | Reuters Institute |
| Markets surveyed | 48 | Reuters Institute |
Methodology and Sources
- Global figures for source usage, platform reach, creators, AI chatbots, trust, avoidance, and payment come from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s Digital News Report 2026 (executive summary and key findings).
- United States platform figures come from Pew Research Center’s Social Media and News Fact Sheet, based on its August 2025 survey wave (fact sheet).
- Independent summaries were used to corroborate the headline crossover and creator findings (GIJN, IFJ takeaways).
- Data watch: the two datasets answer different questions and must not be merged. The Reuters Institute asks about news use in the past week across 48 markets; Pew asks US adults whether they regularly get news on a platform, so the near-identical 54% and 53% headline figures are coincidence, not confirmation. The Digital News Report is an online survey of roughly 2,000 respondents per market, which under-represents offline and low-connectivity populations, so figures for less-connected countries describe the online population only. Pew’s platform percentages come from an August 2025 wave and are the most recent available at publication. The 27% creator figure and the 46% any-creator figure use different definitions of what counts as a creator and are reported as published. Year-over-year comparisons for AI chatbot use rest on a small base and a single prior wave.
- Last updated: August 14, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next major refresh is expected with Pew’s next social media and news wave.