News has never been more accessible. Yet increasingly, it finds us before we find it. Stories appear mid-scroll, dropped in by an algorithm before we’ve even registered where it came from. The Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report confirms that for the first time in history, more people globally get their news from social media and through short form video platforms than from news outlets directly, with these channels now reaching 54% of all audiences worldwide.
Gen Z may be leading the shift, with more than half of 18 to 24-year-olds citing social media, video platforms and AI tools as their main source of news. AI chatbot use, in particular, is seeing real momentum as a weekly news source has risen from 7% to 10% globally in the past year, with nearly one in five 18 to 24-year-olds now using them regularly. But this isn't just a generational trend. Use of news websites and apps has dropped from 63% to 51% since 2021, and they are no longer the primary source for any single age group
Breaking news now arrives sandwiched between a recipe reel and a dance trend, and none of us are immune from this content; the way we discover news has slowly but surely been rewritten. The proportion of people who get their news only from social media, without visiting a traditional news outlet, has doubled in five years, now sitting at 12%.
Instead of deciding when to catch up, we're increasingly catching it in passing. A headline in a feed. A story in search results. A recommendation that appears between everything else we're already doing online. Publishing the story is no longer enough. It has to travel through platforms.
But as coverage travels further, trust becomes harder to hold onto. Confidence in news has fallen to 37% globally, the lowest level recorded since 2015. It's hardly surprising. And it's not just eroding confidence, people are switching off entirely as news avoidance has climbed to 42%, up from 29% in 2017. The same platforms that have transformed how we discover journalism are also where entertainment, opinion, advertising and misinformation compete for the same attention. A headline no longer arrives wrapped in the context that once gave it authority.
That means credibility has to work harder than ever. It no longer comes from the platform alone. It has to be recognised wherever the story appears.
Some of that trust is shifting from institutions to individuals. More and more, it's the person telling the story who captures attention, not the organisation behind it. People follow journalists, creators and subject experts because they feel authentic and accountable in a way that brands often struggle to replicate.
That's changing how credibility is built. A quote from someone with a recognised voice is more likely to be shared than a carefully approved corporate statement. It feels like a point of view instead of a process. In feeds where logos and homepages fade into the background, that personal connection can be what turns a passing glance into genuine engagement.
Traditional news hasn't become less important, but its place in the journey has definitely changed. People still want information they can trust. The difference is that they no longer encounter it in the same place, or judge it in quite the same way.
For PRs, that means recognising that getting published is only the beginning. The stories that make the biggest impact are the ones that reach audiences across the platforms they use every day. Platform diversity now matters as much as the story itself.
