How do people stay informed in our digital age? And who do they trust? Reuters Digital News Report 2026 Answers those questions. The study presented at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn shows how journalism and its use are evolving – especially among young people.
Jim Egan, who led the study, did not strike an entirely optimistic tone in his presentation, saying that “this year’s data is quite troubling in many aspects.” Egan is the lead author of the report – the largest annual survey of news consumption of its kind globally – by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.
Egan explained that the purpose of the report is not to provide comfort but to present a snapshot of reality: “We do this as an exercise in trying to put some facts and some comparative analysis across different markets in an industry and an ecosystem that is full of opinions but doesn’t always know what’s really going on.”
Social media is currently at the forefront of this field
One of the most important findings in the report: Social media networks and video platforms are more frequently used as news sources than television or news outlets’ websites and apps.
“This phenomenon has less to do with emerging platforms than a move away from classic news formats: “So social media consumption and use is really not increasing much,” Egan said. “But what we are seeing is a decline in the use of other platforms, such as television broadcast news, as well as going directly to a news organization’s website or its app.”
This change is especially prevalent among the younger target audience. In the US, more than a third of all respondents under the age of 25 said they never watched a TV news broadcast or regularly used news websites. “They’re not just leaving,” Egan said, “they’re not even starting.”
At the same time, the report warns against trying to expand access at any cost. According to Egan, young people are avid users of social media and video platforms, but trust in news is also at an all-time low. “There’s an irony here that people are moving more and more to platforms they trust less.”
Video: Long formats are also popular
Additionally, the report finds that video formats are becoming increasingly important. Nearly 75% of respondents claim to watch news videos weekly – especially on platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Globally, 20% use TikTok as a news source and 34% turn to YouTube. This number varies significantly by country. For example, in Kenya, 66% of consumers get news through YouTube.
Egan says, however, that publishers with their own video content are increasingly failing to turn a profit because they are losing reach. “Despite the clear popularity of video as a format, audiences are not responding positively to on-site video.”
At the same time, the report refutes a popular bias towards younger target groups and their allegedly short attention spans – showing that long-form videos are very popular among young people, not just TikTok-format videos or YouTube shorts. Nearly 20% of respondents say they regularly watch videos longer than 20 minutes, with a similar number claiming to follow live news programs on YouTube.
Young users are particularly active on this front. “It’s not like young people are just going to pay attention to a two-minute video,” Egan insists. Additionally, its use is also increasing in homes, with a quarter of people surveyed globally saying they watch their news on platforms like YouTube on their television.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also increasingly being seen as a news source, with the share of people using AI chatbots to get news worldwide increasing from 7 to 10% last year. “It’s rapid but not explosive growth,” says Egan. He adds, “Trust in AI chatbots and the news they provide is currently very low, but this will not last forever.”
No other alternative route providing access to news information has also been able to establish itself across the board. Although some young people rely on so-called news influencers, this is hardly a number that can replace established news sources, with only 10% of users saying that such sources meet all of their news needs.
trust continues to decline
Egan also warned of a continued loss of trust, reporting that trust in news had fallen by at least three percentage points in 29 of the 48 countries surveyed. Only 37% of global respondents said they trust news most of the time. “The data should not grow so much in a year,” he said.
Despite these disruptions, the report underlines the continued relevance of journalism. “Journalism still matters – in fact, in many ways it matters more than ever,” Egan told the audience in Bonn. Many people look forward to some kind of orientation, he said, especially in a time of increased uncertainty and fear.
Nearly 100,000 people in 48 countries around the world were interviewed for the 2026 edition of the Reuters Digital News Report.
The German part of the study was conducted by the Leibniz Institute for Media Research in Hamburg.
The Reuters Institute is a research institute of the University of Oxford in England and receives financial support from US tech giant Google, among others.
This article was originally written in German.