TikTok Starts to Replace Traditional News Websites Among Younger Demographics

TikTok is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful social media platforms in the world, and it turns out that its influence doesn’t solely come from the countless viral videos that people can check out on the app. Rather, 20% of people between the ages of 18 and 24 stated that they use TikTok in order to stay up to date with the news, which is a massive increase from the 15% that said the same last year.

This information is coming from the latest Digital News Report coming in from Reuters. With all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that interest in news in general is seeming to go down. This might have something to do with declining trust in the news among most consumers, with just 40% saying that they have any degree of faith in the facts and figures that are being provided.

56% of the people that responded to this survey said that they have a hard time parsing truth from fiction in news media. Back in 2017, 63% of survey respondents stated that they are interested in the news to a high degree, but that number has plummeted to 48% in 2023 with all things having been considered and taken into account.

In light of the prevalence of misinformation, it is peculiar that younger individuals are turning to a platform that is notorious for disseminating fake news. In spite of the fact that this is the case, it is hard to deny that TikTok may very well become the most popular news source in the world if current trends persist, and it will be interesting to see what occurs if this comes to pass.

Legacy news media is in a state of jeopardy, and institutions like Reuters are coming to terms with the potential death of old fashioned news dissemination methods. The coronavirus pandemic seemed to give the news a bit of a bump, but that growth rate has reversed in the following years. The US remains the nation with the lowest trust in the news, sitting at just 32%.


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