55% of people who use TikTok and 52% who use Instagram get their news from “personalities.”
A study says that the next generation trusts TikTok and Instagram stars more than major media and writers to get their news and check facts.
A study by the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that 55% of TikTok users and 52% of Instagram users get their news from “personalities” on those platforms.
According to the 2023 Digital News Report, only 33% of TikTok users and 42% of Instagram users get their news from major media and writers.
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, which is partly characterized by declining engagement with traditional networks such as Facebook and the rise of TikTok and a range of other video-led networks.”
Newman says that young people are more affected than ever by “influencers” on the platform regarding trends, tips, and news.
“Our data show more clearly than ever that this change is strongly influenced by the habits of the youngest generations, who have grown up with social media and often pay more attention to influencers or celebrities than they do to journalists, even when it comes to news,” he wrote.
This trend didn’t appear on older platforms like Facebook and Twitter, where people decided to get their news from major news sites instead of celebrities 43 to 38 and 55 to 42.
TikTok also stood out from the list of social media platforms, which included YouTube and Snapchat, because more users (44%) believe “ordinary people” to get their news. Nobody else had more than 37%.
The 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report also found that more young people get their news from social media than from news websites or apps.
In 2018, 32% of young people got news online from significant media websites or apps. 2023 this number will be just over 1 in 5 (22%).
On the other hand, only 23% of young people got their news from social media in 2018, but that number has jumped to 30% this year.
Most people over 35 (52%) decided to get their news online by visiting a news website or app. Only 24% of 18–24-year-olds did the same.
The report’s main conclusion was that young people have become more critical of the news media, which officials and other influential people often control.
In an introduction, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, the head of the Reuters Institute, said that these changes are “a much more fundamental change” for both television news and internet media.
