Social Media Overtakes TV As #1 Source For News Across The US

For the first time, social media has overtaken television as the number one source of news in the U.S.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found 54 percent of Americans get their news from social media.

50 percent turn to TV news.

Lead author Nick Newman says “It’s about this intimacy, it’s about this connection, it’s about being able to access it when and where people want it.”

73 percent of the Americans polled say they’re worried about being able to tell what is true online.

That bodes well for traditional news sources…“Accuracy, reliability, shoe leather reporting, which feel more important than ever as we go into the AI era, including that human connection.”

As far as TV? Older Americans are the one’s who watch more TV than anyone else, but they have been moving to streaming in droves since the pandemic.

According to Nielsen – more Americans watched television on streaming, than on cable and network television combined last month.

Streaming captured nearly 45 percent of total US usage while broadcast accounted for 20 percent and cable at 24 percent.

The largest audience for streaming in May was Google’s YouTube.