The number that changes everything
2026 represents a significant milestone: for the first time, social media and video network consumption is now ahead of other news sources as the most widely used source of news globally, reaching 54% of all audiences. That's not a gradual evolution. It's a structural break.
The use of both TV news and news organisations' websites and apps has fallen by 13 and 12 percentage points respectively since 2020. The speed matters. This isn't a slow migration; it's a collapse of the old hierarchy, and it happened inside five years.
Globally, 30% of respondents reported that social media and video platforms were their top source of news, an increase from 22% five years ago. And at the sharp end of the age curve: 52% of those aged 18 to 24 said the platforms or AI chatbots were their main way of getting news, followed by 44% of those aged 25 to 34.
The demographic tilt is not a comfort. The findings suggest that younger audiences are unlikely to simply age into the media habits of older generations. Instead, they appear to have been socialised into different patterns of news consumption, shaped by digital platforms, video networks and smaller news repertoires. The current baseline is the floor, not a temporary blip.
Platform by platform: where news is actually happening
Not all platforms gained equally. TikTok has seen the biggest growth in the past five years, up 22 percentage points to 37% of people in 47 markets saying they used it for any purpose, and 12% in selected major news markets said they use it for news, up from 1% in 2020.
YouTube is now the most-used social and video platform overall at 69% and the second-biggest for news at 24%. Instagram saw the second-biggest rise overall, up 11 percentage points to 53% using it for any purpose, and it is used by 23% of people for news.
X/Twitter saw the biggest fall in overall use, down 7 percentage points to 17%, while its use for news has remained steady at 11%. Facebook was the second-biggest platform for overall use at 67% and remains the biggest social media platform for news, having returned to growth after an algorithm change last year made publisher content more prominent.
The practical read for a social team: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are the four corners of the news video ecosystem now. Presence on all four is table stakes, not strategy.
The creator layer nobody hired
The platformisation of news isn't just about where audiences go. It's about who they're listening to when they get there.
More than a quarter of the global sample (27%) now get information each week from news creators, defined as individuals or groups who create and distribute content primarily via social and video networks and have some impact on public debates. When broader content creators who occasionally discuss current affairs are included, the figure rises to 46%.
Audiences find these creators appealing for clear reasons. Respondents describe creators as more entertaining, easier to understand, and more relatable than traditional news outlets, though on average they are considered less trustworthy and less impartial. Entertainment wins over authority, most of the time. But trust remains unresolved.
Creators now form a growing layer between platforms, audiences and traditional media. Their influence varies by country, but their role in shaping public debate is becoming harder for publishers and policymakers to ignore.
For social media marketers, that layer is now the operating environment. Brand content doesn't sit next to news websites or TV bulletins anymore. It sits next to creator commentary, hot takes on geopolitical events, and algorithmically amplified opinion. That's a categorically different context from any previous era of digital advertising.
The trust problem lands in your feed
Here is the uncomfortable truth embedded in the Reuters data. Just 37% of global consumers trust most news most of the time. It's the lowest level ever recorded since the organisation began tracking the metric in 2015. Trust dropped significantly in 29 of the 48 markets surveyed.
For social marketers, this matters in a way that isn't immediately obvious. The trust deficit doesn't stop audiences using these platforms. It makes them more sceptical of everything in the feed, including brand content. A brand that gets tone wrong next to a breaking news story doesn't just look off-brand. It looks opportunistic or oblivious, and in a low-trust environment, that's harder to recover from.
Since 2021, the proportion of people who describe themselves as extremely or very interested in the news has fallen by an average of 13 percentage points, from 59% to just under 46%. The share of respondents classified as casual or passive news users has risen from 16% in 2021 to 25% in 2026. A quarter of the global audience is now passively drifting through news feeds, not actively seeking information. That passive scrolling audience is also the audience for branded content. Reaching disengaged people who are simultaneously anxious about what's in the feed is a creative and scheduling challenge that most brand social calendars haven't caught up with.
What this means on Monday morning
Tone and timing are now news decisions, not just brand decisions. When your feed is an editorial environment, brand content needs an editorial sensibility. That means social teams need faster, clearer protocols for pausing, adjusting, or reconsidering scheduled posts when news breaks. Speed without context is a liability.
Creator partnerships carry more weight than they did. On average, people think creators are less trustworthy and less impartial compared to attributes such as authenticity and relatability. Choosing a creator partner isn't just a reach or demographic decision. In a news-saturated feed, it's a signal about what your brand stands for. The creator's editorial stance and subject matter are now directly relevant to brand safety assessment.
Short-form video is not optional. Short-form video has become a dominant format on several platforms, shaped by algorithmic distribution and creator-driven production styles. Consumption of video on news publisher websites has fallen by 10 percentage points since 2021 to 23% of people, while those watching news-related videos on social media or video networks has risen to 69%, up 14 percentage points. The audience has gone entirely native. Adapting long-form brand content to a social format is no longer enough; the format has to be built for the feed from the start.
The Global South is where the shift is sharpest. The change is especially pronounced among younger users and in parts of the Global South, where social media and video platforms have become central to news discovery. Thailand, Indonesia, Peru, and South Africa are among the countries with the highest levels of online news video use, all over 80%. Brands with footprints in these markets who are still running TV-adjacent social strategies are behind.
The passive majority needs a different playbook. With a quarter of audiences now classified as passive or casual news consumers, content that demands prior context or sustained attention is working against the grain. Shorter, clearer, lower-friction content will outperform depth and complexity, at least in reach terms. That trade-off is worth making explicitly rather than stumbling into it.
The line nobody else is drawing
Every trade outlet has covered the headline: social beats TV. The implication getting less attention is structural. The proportion of people getting their news only from platforms has risen from 6% to 12% in five years. One in eight people globally now have no news touchpoint outside of social. That group's entire model of the world is being shaped inside feeds where brand content, creator opinion, breaking news, and algorithmic amplification all sit in the same undifferentiated stream.
Social media teams have spent a decade thinking about how to make content that cuts through. The question now is whether they're thinking about what it means to operate as a communications channel inside a global news environment, with the responsibilities that come with it.