London/44% of young people between 18 and 24 years say that social networks and video platforms are their main news source, according to a report by the Reuters Institute published Tuesday, which verifies the loss of influence of traditional media.
In its 14th edition, the Digital News Report 2025 It indicates that, in general, the television monitoring, the written press and the newspaper websites continue to go down, while increasing the dependence of the networks, platforms such as YouTube and Tiktok and the information aggregators.
The study, headed by Nic Newman, is based on a survey conducted online almost 100,000 people in 48 markets, including Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
According to the report, the proportion of people who consume videos in networks has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025.
According to the report, the proportion of people who consume videos in networks has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025
These changes in access to information have allowed politicians such as US President Donald Trump, or the Argentine, Javier Milei, dispensing with conventional media and resorting to creators of related content, he says.
According to the disseminated data, Tiktok is the fastest growing platform this year for news consumption, by adding 4 percentage points to 17%, reaching 49% in Thailand (+10).
At the same time, generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots “emerge as a new access road to information”, used by 12% of those under 35 years of age.
On the other hand, the use of X to consume news “remains stable or increased”, with the highest growth recorded in the United States, up to 23% (+8 points), and in Australia and Poland (+6).
Since Elon Musk took command in 2022, “many more right -wing people have incorporated, especially young men, while they have left it or uses less the progressive public,” says the researchers.
Rival platforms such as Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon “have little global impact,” they add.
40%of the respondents maintain the general confidence in the news, being Finland and Nigeria where the highest levels are found, with 67 and 68%, respectively, and Greece and Hungary the lowest, with 22%.
According to the study, people still resort to reliable brands such as the British BBC or the American newspaper The New York Times -So as other means of public service or government sources- to verify news content that believe they could be false or deceitful.
This scenario, he points out, “can offer opportunities for the media, since the audiences continue to turn to them when they look for reliable information”
This scenario, he points out, “can offer opportunities for the media, since the audience influencer and personal contacts. ”
The report finds that in most countries hearings “are maintained skeptical about AI in journalism, and feel more comfortable when there is human supervision.”
40% of respondents maintain that sometimes or often “avoids the news”, the highest registered figure, because they negatively affect mood (39%); They feel overwhelmed by quantity (31%) or believe there is too much coverage of wars and conflicts (30%) and national politics (29%).
Most say “not be willing to pay for the news”, which harms the media that seek to diversify income with the digital subscription.
In the 20 richest countries, the proportion it pays remains stable in 18%, with the highest rates in Norway (42%) and Sweden (31%), 20% in the United States, 10% in Spain and only 6% in Croatia.
On these trends, the researcher Nic Newman warns that “the rise of video news and based on personalities of social networks implies another significant challenge for traditional media, who fight to adapt their contents and their tone to these so different environments.”
“The video on-line It can be a good route to attract the young public, but it provides very few commercial advantages because most of the news consumption occurs on the platforms and not on the websites of the editors or managed by them, “he says.
Newman warns that the media face a rapid loss of influence, because “more and more, populist politicians seek Influencers supporters “.
Newman warns that the media face a rapid loss of influence, because “more and more, populist politicians seek
In its analysis by countries, the US report emphasizes the “war on the press” that Donald Trump has launched since his return to power has increased the crisis of the journalistic sector in the country.
The center, which belongs to the University of Oxford, appealed to the warmongering concept coined by reporters without borders (RSF) to alert the ruler’s offensive, which goes from the dismantling of means to the direct attacks due to disobedience.
Last year’s report, which as this time the professors of Journalism Lucas Serious (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Joy Jenkins (University of Misuri), was optimistic with which the US presidenties “stopped the hemorrhage” of the sector, but their conclusions of this year reflect that the victory of the Republican only increased it.
One of the clashes against the media that highlights the Reuters Institute is Trump’s with the Associated Press (AP) news agency, which he excluded from numerous White House events because he refused to call the Gulf of America to the Gulf of Mexico, as he ordered.
After justice was right to the agency, the New Yorker eliminated the permanent position for news agencies in the White House press group. Instead, it has opened access to “new media”, as well as content creators.
Reference is also made to the dismantling of the US Global Media Agency (USAGM), which left without funds and fired most of its workers in Voice of America and Radio Martí.
But these were not the only cessations: the layoffs continued the same trend as the previous year, which the study compared to the financial crisis of 2008.
Among others, the reduction of “approximately 100 positions in the business area of the newspaper is laments The Washington Post, An 8% cut in the AP template, almost 30 layoffs in Huffpost and 12 in Vox Media ”.
In addition, according to the report, many progressive Americans have chosen to get away from the news, making the Fox News conservative chain won audience.
According to the report, many progressive Americans have chosen to get away from the news, making the Fox News conservative tendency
The consumption of social networks as a source of information has also been triggered, which grew in more than six points.
Facebook is still the favorite platform of Americans to consume news, followed by YouTube, X and Instagram.
The panorama of these platforms has also been affected since the return of the New York to power last January. In a gesture of approach to Trump, Meta Executive Director (Facebook Matrix, Instagram and WhatsApp, among others), Mark Zuckerberg, announced the end of his agreement with data verifiers after accusing them of ideological bias and censorship.
Instead, he opted for a system similar to that of the X, of which the magnate Elon Musk, Trump’s ally until a few days ago.
The rise of this media system worries the Reuters Institute, as these platforms suppose a danger to truthful information.
“When it comes to false or misleading sources of information, Influencers And Internet personalities are considered the greatest threat worldwide, together with national politicians, ”says the study.
The United States is, he says, one of the most “obvious” cases of this threat.
