Pew Research has published its latest overview of The use of social media as a news sourceAnd how people increasingly trust social media apps to keep them informed of the latest information and updates.
What a critical consideration. In the course of time, more and more people on social media are going to trust as a news and information source, who guide their thinking on important topics and how they support political candidates, or not. It is indeed not a piece to say that social media now form the world in which we live, whether you use it personally or not, and as such it is worth writing down the latest trends and to understand how people keep themselves informed of important news issues.
First, in terms of news sources on social media, Facebook and YouTube are still at the forefront, although both Tiktok and Instagram rise steadily as news sources.
As you can see in these graphs, 38%of American adults regularly receive news updates from Facebook, followed by YouTube (36%) and then Tiktok (20%) and Instagram (20%).
The value of X as a news source has fallen in recent years, after the takeover of Elon Musk from the platform that is previously known as Twitter, while Threads appears his debut in the Pew report.
It is interesting and somewhat worrying to see that Facebook remains an important news exit, especially in view of the more recent shift in facts of third parties, with crowd-sourced community notes that do not offer the same levels of protection against wrong information in social apps. Facebook is also increasingly filled with waste generated by AI, and with so many people who are confronted with news content on the platform, it seems that there are different vectors for wrong information and misleading reports that could be a wider concept.
But Facebook is also the most used social media platform in the world, and although others probably see more time spent within their apps, Facebook remains a critical connector and clearly an important source of news and information for many people.
Indeed, About half of our adults (53%) say that they at least get something new from social media, which is about the same level that it has been in recent years.
It is also interesting to notice news consumption among regular users of each app, where this element looks more specifically at how regular users of each app they use for news content.
For the past two years, Facebook seems to have regained its value for news, which can also be related to the switch to community notes, while both Tiktok and Instagram become more critical news sources for their respective audience. This suggests that these apps are more relevant news providers for younger people who can indicate evolving informative trends, and where the public will increasingly be looking for informed about the latest topics.
That is also reflected in this graph Specific with regard to Tiktok:
Young audience gets much more chance of getting news input from Tiktok, which underlines its rising value as a source of information, and an important medium for distributing news updates to reach these target groups.
That’s why politicians now post Tiktok -Clips, and why Donald Trump wants to save ticktok so much, for which he is credited help him win the 2024 elections.
Although this also underlines the worries that safety officers have the influence of Tiktok, and the potential that the app is used as a means for the Chinese government to influence opinions in other countries.
That is a part of the reason why the app has opened a ban in the US (what it seems to have avoided now), and if this remains a point of concern, the increasing influence of Tiktok as a news provider certainly underlines his power in this respect.
In essence, Tiktok and IG becomes more powerful, while Facebook remains the most important motivation of a broader opinion. Whether that is a good or not, is due to your individual perspective, but if you want to get a better understanding of why people think the way they do and how they see political issues, these notes can show you in the right direction.
Anyway, some interesting data about the state of news consumption on social media apps, and the influential role that continues to play socially in shaping opinions and informing people about the latest updates.
You can view Pew’s full “Social Media News” report here.
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