Report: TikTok growing as favoured news source
June 14, 2023
By Colin Mann
This year’s Reuters Institute Digital News Report provides evidence that news audiences are becoming more dependent on digital and social platforms, putting further pressure on both ad-based and subscription business models of news organisations at a time when both household and company spending is being squeezed.
The report documents how video-based content, distributed via networks such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are becoming more important for news, especially in parts of the Global South, while legacy platforms such as Facebook are losing influence.
Both interest and trust in news continue to fall in many countries as the connection between journalism and much of the public continues to fray. There is evidence that audiences continue to selectively avoid important stories such as the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis as they cut back on depressing news and look to protect their mental health.
Younger audiences, platform shifts and the implications for news
Facebook is becoming much less important as a source of news – and by implication as a driver of traffic to news websites. Just 28 per cent say they accessed news via Facebook in 2023 compared with 42 per cent in 2016. This decline is partly driven by Facebook pulling back from news and partly by the way that video-based networks like YouTube and TikTok are increasingly capturing much of the attention of younger users.
Weekly news usage for Twitter has remained relatively stable in most countries following Elon Musk’s takeover, with usage of alternative networks, such as Mastodon, extremely low. TikTok is the fastest growing social network in our survey, used by 44 per cent of 18–24-year-olds for any purpose (and by 20 per cent for news). The Chinese owned app is most heavily used in parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The report shows that users of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat tend to pay more attention to celebrities and social media influencers than they do to journalists or media companies when it comes to news topics. This marks a sharp contrast with legacy social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, where news organisations still attract most attention and lead conversations.
At the same time, stated preferences by audiences to directly visit news websites continue to decline. Across 46 markets, the proportion that say their main access point is via a news website or app has fallen from 32 per cent in 2018 to 22 per cent in 2023, while dependence on social media access has grown.
“Younger generations increasingly eschew direct discovery for all but the most appealing brands,” notes Reuters Institute Director Rasmus Nielsen. “They have little interest in many conventional news offers oriented towards older generations’ habits, interests, and values, and instead embrace the more personality-based, participatory, and personalised options offered by social media, often looking beyond legacy platforms to new entrants (many of whom drive few referrals to media organisations and do not prioritise news).”
Business pressures grow compounded by cost-of-living crisis
Generational and platform shifts have made things even more difficult for a news industry trying to deal with the fallout from a pandemic, a war in Europe, and a global squeeze on household spending. The report finds that growth in payment for online news has stalled in many markets, with more than a third of subscribers (39 per cent) across more than 20 countries saying they have cancelled or renegotiated their news subscriptions in the last year. In qualitative interviews, the need to save money was by far the biggest reason given:
“I was spending too much on online subscriptions. I wanted to cut some costs, mainly. I just couldn’t afford it anymore.” Female, 24, USA
Despite this, the headline numbers have remained relatively stable in most countries with special offers and lower prices attracting some new customers. Around four in ten paid for online news in Norway (39 per cent) in the last year, a third in Sweden (33 per cent), a fifth (21 per cent) in the United States, but just a tenth in Germany (11 per cent), France (11 per cent), and the UK (9 per cent).
The report highlights how important news subscriptions are to some, but also how fragile the arrangement is for others. In exploring motivations for subscription, the report finds that while many people are increasingly price conscious, others subscribe based on either a long-standing relationship, or the sense that the outlet speaks to them and for them. Additional features such as games or podcasts are a motivation for a smaller proportion of customers with bundled subscriptions becoming more popular.
News avoidance and lack of interest
The report finds declining interest in news in a large number of countries – particularly with younger and hard to reach groups – and high levels of selective news avoidance (people who say they actively do it sometimes or often), with the headline rate at 36 per cent, seven percentage points above the figure in 2017 but two points lower than last year. In qualitative interviews, many say that news stories are too repetitive or too ‘emotionally draining’. Amongst news avoiders, the report notes that around half (53 per cent) try to avoid all news in a periodic way with others being more specific by reducing the amount of news by checking less often (52 per cent) or avoiding difficult topics (32 per cent):
Avoiders are much more likely to look for positive news or solutions-based approaches than constant updates on the big stories of the day. Lead author Nic Newman says: “It is clear that many websites and apps are optimised for those that are super-engaged with every twist and turn of today’s news (and politics) agenda. But these approaches also seem to be turning large sections of the public away – with potential long-term implications for civic and democratic engagement.”
Highlights from the UK
- Along with national broadsheet titles, all UK public broadcasters increased their trust levels in the last year.
- News consumption has remained broadly stable in the last 12 months, with the exception of newspapers (-3 percentage points).
- Only 9 per cent of UK respondents currently pay for any online news, the same as in 2022.
Seven key findings from the 2023 report
- On trust in news. Trust in the news has fallen across markets by a further 2 percentage points in the last year, reversing in many countries the gains made at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. On average, four in ten of our total sample (40 per cent) say they trust most news most of the time. Finland remains the country with the highest levels of overall trust (69 per cent), while Greece (19 per cent) has the lowest. The United States (32 per cent) has seen a 6-point increase in trust in news as politics has become a bit less divisive under Joe Biden’s presidency, but trust remains amongst the lowest in our survey.
- On media criticism. The report shows how politicians in countries such as the United States, Mexico and the Philippines have become the leading source of criticism of journalists and of the news media, ahead of ordinary people, and influencers. Social media is by far the most common way people say they are exposed to criticism. Up to 49 per cent of those who report exposure to criticism across markets say this is where they see or hear it, followed by discussions with people they know (36 per cent).
- On how audiences see algorithms for news. Much of the public is sceptical of the algorithms used to select what they see via search engines, social media, and other platforms. Less than a third (30 per cent) say that having stories selected for them on the basis of previous consumption is a good way to get news, 6 points lower than when we last asked the same question in 2016. Despite this, on average, users still slightly prefer news selected this way to that chosen by editors or journalists (27 per cent), suggesting that worries about algorithms are part of a wider concern about news and how it is selected.
- On misinformation and disinformation. Across markets, well over half (56 per cent) say they worry about identifying the difference between what is real and fake on the internet when it comes to news – up 2 percentage points on last year. Those who say they mainly use social media as a source of news are much more worried (64 per cent) than people who don’t use it at all (50 per cent) while many countries with the highest levels of concern also tend to have high levels of social media news use.
- On participation in news online. Despite hopes that the internet could widen democratic debate, we find that fewer people are participating in online news than in the recent past. Across markets, only around a fifth (22 per cent) are now active participators, with around half (47 per cent) not participating in news at all. In the UK and the United States, the proportion of active participators has fallen by more than 10 points since 2016. Across countries we find that this group tends to be male, better educated, and more partisan in their political views.
- On public service news. Public media brands remain among those with the highest levels of trust in many Northern European countries, but reach has been declining with younger audiences. This is important because we find that those that use these services most frequently are more likely to see them as important personally and for society. These findings suggest that maintaining the breadth of public service reach remains critical for future legitimacy, especially with younger groups.
- On news podcasts. News podcasting continues to resonate with educated and younger audiences, but remains a minority activity overall. Around a third (34 per cent) access a podcast monthly, based on a group of 20 countries, but only 12 per cent access a show on news and current affairs. Our research finds that deep-dive podcasts inspired by the New York Times’ The Daily and extended chat shows are the most widely consumed across markets. We also identify the growing popularity of video-led or hybrid news podcasts. The report contains details of top news podcasts in a number of countries including the UK, US, and Australia.