Social media and video networks have surpassed traditional news websites and apps as the primary way people consume news globally, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, which was published this week.
The annual report, based on surveys across 48 markets, paints a picture of a news ecosystem facing escalating volatility and a profound transformation in audience behaviour. For the first time in the report’s 15-year history, 54% of global respondents reported accessing online news via social media and video platforms, pulling ahead of the 51% who go directly to news organisations’ “owned and operated” platforms.
“The data this year point to greater volatility, reflecting this heightened sense of uncertainty,” writes Jim Egan, the report’s lead author, noting that audiences are reacting with anxiety, disengagement and cynicism to successive waves of political, economic and technological turbulence.
A central theme of the 2026 findings is the rapid “platformisation” of news. Online video consumption is surging, with 77% of people globally watching news videos each week. Much of this growth is occurring on third-party, video-led networks like YouTube, Instagram and notably TikTok, which is now used by 20% of respondents globally for news. Meanwhile, the consumption of video on mainstream news outlets’ own sites has dropped by five percentage points.
Independent creators and influencers are at the forefront of this video revolution. Roughly 27% of global respondents now get some of their news from individual creators. While audiences find these influencers more relatable and entertaining than traditional journalists, they also rate them as less trustworthy and less impartial.
Artificial intelligence is also carving out a new frontier in how the public digests current events. Globally, 10% of people now use AI chatbots to get their news, up from 7% last year. The adoption is particularly strong among younger demographics, with 16% of under-35s utilising AI tools to ask follow-up questions and seek deeper explanations of complex stories.
However, these technological shifts come at a steep cost to traditional metrics of industry health. Overall interest in news has plummeted, falling 13 percentage points since 2021. A full quarter of all respondents are now classified as “casual or passive” consumers who check the news just once a week.
Simultaneously, trust in the news has hit a record low. Trust dropped in 29 of the 48 surveyed markets, dragging the global average down to just 37% – the lowest figure recorded since the Reuters Institute began tracking the metric in 2015. Alongside plummeting trust, concerns regarding misinformation and “fake news” have spiked to 62%.
The financial outlook for legacy outlets also remains challenging. The percentage of people paying for online news remains stagnant at 17% across a tracked basket of 20 countries. As direct traffic to news websites dwindles, converting casual readers into paying subscribers is becoming increasingly difficult, though the report notes a growing trend of audiences financially supporting non-traditional outlets based on shared values.
Despite the grim statistics regarding trust and engagement, the report highlights a resilient demand for core journalistic values. A significant 45% of respondents still prefer news that does not take sides, proving that while the mediums through which people consume information are changing at breakneck speed, the public’s desire for objective, impartial reporting remains strong.
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