For the first time, more people say they get their news from social media and video networks than from any other source, even as trust in media hits a fresh all-time low—signals that audiences are both drifting from “the news” and clinging tighter to familiar
By the time people reach for a headline, many no longer start with a homepage.
In the Reuters Institute Digital News Report’s 15th year. the shift is blunt: for the first time. people say they get their news from social media and video networks like YouTube more than from any other source. Across audiences. 54% of people get news from social media and video networks. passing what used to be the primary sources—publisher websites (51%) and TV (52%).
At the same time, the report shows trust in media falling again. Just 37% of people say they trust most news most of the time, the lowest reading since Reuters began tracking it in 2015. In the United States, that figure drops to 25%.
The trust slide shows up in other long-running measures too. Gallup’s latest measure, from October 2025, put U.S. trust in mass media at a record-low 28%, down from 31% the year before and 40% five years ago.
That contradiction—people consuming more news through platforms they may not fully trust—has turned into the defining tension for newsrooms trying to survive the AI era.
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