A generational shift toward 'influencers,' podcasters, and AI chatbots and away from traditional media is upending professional journalism.
Trust in news remains low globally, with significant variations across countries. Social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram are increasingly popular for news consumption, especially among younger audiences, while traditional media like TV and print continue to decline.
That visible trend toward digital information via social media and video platforms further diminishes the influence of institutional journalism, according to a report on Tuesday from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, an international research center for journalism, media, and the digital public sphere, at the University of Oxford.
Personalities and influencers are playing a significant role in shaping public debates in some countries. For the first time, more Americans said they get their news from social and video networks than they do from television and news websites, reflecting the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump and his promotion of ideological content creation and social media, including his own brand, and his attacks on the credibility of traditional news outlets.
Around a third of the global sample use Facebook and YouTube for news each week; around a fifth use Instagram and WhatsApp. TikTok is next with 16%, followed by X with 12%. For fact-checking, the report says, trusted news brands, including public service news brands in many countries, are still the most frequently named place that people say they go.
"One more relatively positive sign is that overall trust in the news (40%) has remained stable for the third year in a row, even if it is still four points lower overall than it was at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic."
Populists turning to 'friendly partisan media'
Economic pressures on media are growing due to declining advertising revenues, rising operational costs, and competition from tech platforms, prompting initiatives like journalism sustainability funds and bargaining codes. Press freedom faces challenges worldwide, with harassment of journalists, censorship, and legal restrictions in countries like Romania, Turkey, India, and Morocco.
Social media platforms are increasingly used for activism and news sharing, bypassing traditional media gatekeeping, but this has also led to a surge in misinformation, prompting fact-checking initiatives and regulatory measures.
By supercharging a fragmented alternative media environment of podcasters, YouTubers, and TikTokers, the report finds, "populist politicians around the world are increasingly able to bypass traditional journalism in favor of friendly partisan media, ‘personalities,' and ‘influencers’ who often get special access but rarely ask difficult questions, with many implicated in spreading false narratives or worse."
Artificial intelligence is being integrated into newsrooms for tasks like content generation, translation, and fact-checking, raising concerns about misinformation, job displacement, and ethical implications.
AI chatbots and interfaces also are emerging as sources for news though only among 7% of respondents overall, according to the institute's study based on a YouGov survey of about 100,000 online news consumers in 48 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
AI features that personalize story formats are more popular than those that personalize story selection; 27% want AI summaries, 15% want text-to-audio and text-to-video features, and 21% regularly use mobile news alerts.
