Social media is one of the go-to news sources in the United States – over one third of U.S. adults responding to a 2022 survey got their news from social media platforms every day, and a further 22 percent did so a few times or at least once per week. After the surge in social media news consumption in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, daily engagement fell in 2021, but the increase the following year suggests that daily news access on social networks could continue to grow in years to come.
The most popular social sites for news
An annual report surveying U.S. adults from 2019 to 2022 revealed that Facebook was the most popular social network used for news, followed by YouTube. Important to note here though is that TikTok was not included in the survey question for those years, a platform increasingly popular with younger generations. Whilst the share of adults regularly using TikTok for news aged 50 years or above was just five percent, among those aged between 18 and 29 years the figure was over five times higher.
Meanwhile, Twitter is journalists’ preferred social media site, with the share who use Twitter for their job at almost 70 percent. Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter however, some journalists raised concerns about the future of free speech on the platform.
Gen Z and social media news consumption
A 2022 survey found that half of all Gen Z respondents used social media for news every day. Gen Z is driving growth in social media news usage, a trend which will continue if the younger consumers belonging to this generation increase their engagement with news as they age.
Frequency of news consumption via social media among adults in the United States from 2020 to 2022
Question: How often do you turn to the following sources for news?
Dates of survey for each year are as follows: March 19 to 21, 2020; May 6 to 9, 2021; August 11 to 17, 2022.
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Morning Consult. (October 17, 2022). Frequency of news consumption via social media among adults in the United States from 2020 to 2022 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved August 25, 2024, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/263498/use-of-social-media-for-news-consumption-among-hispanics-in-the-us/
Morning Consult. "Frequency of news consumption via social media among adults in the United States from 2020 to 2022." Chart. October 17, 2022. Statista. Accessed August 25, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/263498/use-of-social-media-for-news-consumption-among-hispanics-in-the-us/
Morning Consult. (2022). Frequency of news consumption via social media among adults in the United States from 2020 to 2022. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: August 25, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/263498/use-of-social-media-for-news-consumption-among-hispanics-in-the-us/
Morning Consult. "Frequency of News Consumption via Social Media among Adults in The United States from 2020 to 2022." Statista, Statista Inc., 17 Oct 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/263498/use-of-social-media-for-news-consumption-among-hispanics-in-the-us/
Morning Consult, Frequency of news consumption via social media among adults in the United States from 2020 to 2022 Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/263498/use-of-social-media-for-news-consumption-among-hispanics-in-the-us/ (last visited August 25, 2024)
Frequency of news consumption via social media among adults in the United States from 2020 to 2022 [Graph], Morning Consult, October 17, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263498/use-of-social-media-for-news-consumption-among-hispanics-in-the-us/
