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According to a research issued on Tuesday, the percentage of individuals who first receive news through a website or app has decreased by ten points since 2018, and younger groups prefer to obtain news through social media, search, or mobile aggregators.
On platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, audiences pay more attention to celebrities, influencers, and social media personalities than journalists, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism's annual Digital News Report. TikTok is the report's fastest growing social network, with 20% of 18- to 24-year-olds using it for news, up five percentage points from last year. Fewer than half of poll respondents reported any interest in news, a dramatic decrease from 6 out of 10 in 2017.
"There are no reasonable grounds for expecting that those born in the 2000s will suddenly come to prefer old-fashioned websites, let alone broadcast and print, simply because they grow older," Reuters Institute Director Rasmus Nielsen said in the report, which was based on an online survey of approximately 94,000 adults conducted in 46 markets, including the United States.
Less than a third of poll respondents felt having stories picked for them based on prior consumption is a good way to acquire news, a 6-point drop from 2016, when the topic was previously addressed. Nonetheless, consumers still prefer to have their news decided by algorithms rather than by editors or journalists.
In the previous year, trust in the news has dropped by two percentage points, undoing advances gained in several nations during the coronavirus outbreak. On average, 40% of individuals say they trust most news the majority of the time. The United States' faith in news has increased by six points to 32 percent, although it remains among the lowest in the study.
Across markets, 56 percent of individuals are concerned about distinguishing between authentic and fake news on the internet, a 2 percentage point increase over last year.
According to the study, 48 percent of Americans are very or extremely interested in news, down from 63 percent in 2017.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation, Thomson Reuters' philanthropy arm, funds the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.