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According to a report by the UK media watchdog, nearly two-thirds of young adults rely on social media on their mobile phones for accessing news. This raises concerns about trust and the credibility of information provided by prominent online sources.
Ofcom’s report on news consumption in the UK, published on Thursday, emphasizes the significance of social media platforms like TikTok and Snap as gatekeepers to news. It reveals that over a third of 16- to 24-year-olds visit news websites through social media, while only a fraction directly visit traditional news sites.
The study finds that this age group has a weaker relationship with traditional media, with less than half watching TV channels for news and only about one-sixth reading print newspapers. Instead, they are drawn to “light-hearted news on social media” focusing on celebrity, sports, and music. Mobile phones serve as the primary device for accessing such news, with 63% of young adults using them.
According to Ofcom, these findings suggest that young people have a less direct connection with established news brands. Established news brands generally maintain clearer editorial control and direction compared to news aggregation sites or platforms that present both comment and factual content.
Interestingly, BBC One is the only traditional media source that ranks among the top five news sources consumed by the 16-to-24 age group. Instagram is the most widely used single news source, followed by BBC, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.
Contrasting this, TikTok is the most utilized news source across all platforms for children aged 12 to 15, followed by YouTube. In comparison, only 16% of individuals over 75 years old use social media for accessing news.
Douglas McCabe, media analyst at Enders, points out that the growing dominance of social media as a news source raises concerns regarding trust and the reliability of information. He highlights that the hierarchy and curation of content on social media are not determined by news and information media but by different criteria, diminishing the influence and impact of news brands investing in quality journalism. This has significant implications for the economics of media and democracy.
The Ofcom report, based on 4,556 online and in-person interviews, also reveals that the decline in print newspapers has stabilized. Over a quarter of all adults now read their news through print, slightly higher than last year. When including online platforms, this percentage rises to nearly 40%.
BBC One remains the most popular single news source across all platforms, with 49% of UK adults using it, followed by ITV at about one-third. However, these channels have experienced gradual declines in users over the past five years.
In contrast, TikTok’s popularity as a news source is on the rise, surpassing BBC Radio 1 and Channel 5 for the first time. Approximately one in ten adults now relies on TikTok to stay updated with the latest stories.
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