Digital sources have become an important part of Americans’ news diets – with social media playing a crucial role, particularly for younger adults. Overall, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years.
News consumption on social media
Facebook and YouTube outpace all other social media sites as places where Americans regularly get news. About a third of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on each of these two sites.
Smaller shares of Americans regularly get news on Instagram (20%), TikTok (17%) or X, formerly known as Twitter (12%). And even fewer get news on several other sites, including Reddit (8%), Nextdoor (5%), Snapchat (5%), WhatsApp (5%), LinkedIn (4%), Truth Social (3%) and Rumble (2%).
News consumption by social media site
% of U.S. adults who regularly get news on each social media site
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted July 15-Aug. 4, 2024.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Some social media sites – despite having relatively small overall audiences – stand out as destinations for news among many of their users. For example, 59% of X users get news there, as do a similar share of users on Truth Social (57%), the site owned by former President Donald Trump. On the other hand, only 14% of LinkedIn users regularly get news on that platform.
About half of TikTok users (52%) say they regularly get news on the site, up from 43% in 2023 and just 22% in 2020. The share of users who get news also has risen on several other sites, including YouTube and Instagram.