Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
News influencers on social media have become a popular alternative to traditional journalists and news organizations as a source of news for many Americans. This fact sheet looks at Americans’ experiences with news influencers on social media.
Overall, 56% of U.S. adults now say they have a lot of or some trust in the information they get from national news organizations – down 11 percentage points since March 2025.
Many Americans use social media for news: About a fifth or more regularly get news on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
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About two-in-three U.S. adults say fake news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current issues. And nearly a quarter say they have ever shared completely made-up news.
More than half of U.S. smartphone users say they get push notifications on their phones’ screens, but only about half of those who ever get these alerts click through to the full story.
A quarter of U.S. adults (24%) turn to social media posts from either the Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump campaigns as a way of keeping up with the election, while 10% turn to their websites and 9% turn to emails.
Digital innovation has had a major impact on the public’s news habits. How have these changes shaped Americans’ appetite for and attitudes toward the news?
A majority of Americans get news on social media, including 18% who do so often. News plays a varying role across the nine social networking sites studied.
Facebook sends by far the most mobile readers to news sites of any social media site, while Twitter mobile users spend more engaged time with news content.
Presidential candidates were mentioned in over 350,000 comments in May, June and September 2015, with a high level of early interest in Bernie Sanders
The number of journalism projects funded through Kickstarter has grown over time, totaling more than 650 projects and nearly $6.3 million by mid-September 2015.
An analysis of how 12 heavily visited U.S. news websites covered the pope’s visit to America. The news narrative around Pope Francis’ visit to the United States drew heavily upon the Pope and the public as sources.
A look at how researchers analyzed news habits on Twitter using a small but representative sample of users drawn from a national survey of U.S. adults.
