Social media provided a brand new platform for news by connecting readers directly to journalists on the ground instead of having to rely on news that was filtered through many layers of editorial oversight. While there have been some instances of misinformation being spread through social media and the ease of access of these platforms might make some users take their news with a grain of salt, it turns out that a majority of US adults now trust news they find on social media more than their national news networks.
This is specifically for adults who are under the age of 30, and that is quite interesting because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up indicating that the next generation might focus more heavily on news that can be obtained from social media. 50% of US adults stated that they trust social media news. 56% said the same for national news as well, but in spite of the fact that this is the case this type of news has been seeing a downward trend for several years.
The number goes down among higher age demographics which is unsurprising considering that they are just not used to social media news and are more amenable to traditional news sources with all things having been considered and taken into account. There is a stark partisan divide here as well, with Democrats being more likely to trust national news than might have been the case otherwise.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the most trusted news source is neither national news nor is it social media. Rather, this honor belongs to local news sources which are trusted by 62% of adults under 30 years of age. It will be interesting to see if the surpassing of national news by social media would do anything to democratize the news industry. News with a political slant might become more common, but the lack of editorial oversight could also lead to raw and unfiltered news reaching the masses.
H/T: Pew
Read next: IoT Industry Grows by 33% in H1 2022 Due to Outsourced Manufacturing
This is specifically for adults who are under the age of 30, and that is quite interesting because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up indicating that the next generation might focus more heavily on news that can be obtained from social media. 50% of US adults stated that they trust social media news. 56% said the same for national news as well, but in spite of the fact that this is the case this type of news has been seeing a downward trend for several years.
The number goes down among higher age demographics which is unsurprising considering that they are just not used to social media news and are more amenable to traditional news sources with all things having been considered and taken into account. There is a stark partisan divide here as well, with Democrats being more likely to trust national news than might have been the case otherwise.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the most trusted news source is neither national news nor is it social media. Rather, this honor belongs to local news sources which are trusted by 62% of adults under 30 years of age. It will be interesting to see if the surpassing of national news by social media would do anything to democratize the news industry. News with a political slant might become more common, but the lack of editorial oversight could also lead to raw and unfiltered news reaching the masses.
H/T: Pew
Read next: IoT Industry Grows by 33% in H1 2022 Due to Outsourced Manufacturing
