Social media has overtaken TV as the primary source of news for Americans, according to a report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
The study surveyed 100,000 news consumers across 48 countries to understand their preferences, and in a not-so-shocking revelation about the US audience, it found that 54% of people got their news from social media, while 48% got theirs from traditional TV networks.
The numbers are starkly different from those of 2013, when 72% preferred TV, and 27% preferred social media. The shift is primarily driven by younger audiences; 48% of people above the age of 55 still obtain their news from TV.
With the rise of social media, “influencers are, in some countries, playing a significant role in shaping public debates,” the study notes. Unsurprisingly, in the lead-up to the US election, both candidates gave interviews to some popular creators on X and YouTube.
President Trump’s interview with podcaster Joe Rogan hit 38 million views in just three days in October. Last week, over one-fifth of Americans (22%) followed Rogan’s comments on the news, while 14% followed former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.
The rise of news podcasts in the US is such that the proportion of people who prefer to get their news through this medium (15%) is slightly higher than those who prefer a printed newspaper or magazine (14%).
Another significant change was noted in text-based social media platforms. Since Elon Musk took over X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, the number of politically right-leaning users on the platform has increased by three times. Last week, in the US, 26% of people who got their news from X were right-leaning, and 24% were left-leaning.
Additionally, the widespread exodus of liberals, journalists, and news organizations to Threads, Mastodon, or Bluesky following Musk’s takeover hasn’t affected X’s reach in the 12 countries surveyed by the study. The rival platforms have a reach of 2% or less for news.
AI chatbots are another emerging source of news. Globally, 15% of people under 25 are checking AI chatbots for real-time news. TikTok, on the other hand, is the fastest-growing social and video network, the report adds.
Recommended by Our Editors
Overall, although social video news has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025, more than half of the people (55%) surveyed prefer reading online news to watching it. In the US, 60% prefer reading, 27% prefer watching, and 13% prefer listening.
None of this means people trust online news more. Almost 58% of global respondents find it difficult to tell what is real and what is fake. In the US, the number is a staggering 73%.
The study had many more findings. You can download a PDF of the whole survey from the Reuters Institute website.
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
About Jibin Joseph
Contributor
