Commentary

Good News/Bad News On Where Americans Are Getting Their News

by Joe Mandese , September 25, 2025

At a time when many Americans no longer read newspapers, the percentage citing social-media apps as their regular source of news has been growing, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.

In fact, X has the greatest percentage of users regularly getting their news there -- 57% -- although that is down slightly from a high of 59%.

TikTok ranks No. 2 in terms of share of users regularly consuming news there -- 55% -- up from just 22% when Pew first began benchmarking the phenomenon five years ago.

Facebook and Truth Social are the only other two social apps in which more than half of their users report getting their news regularly there.

I call the increasing percentages of Americans using social media for news "bad news," because the notion and nature of what constitutes "news" may or may not be actual news. The role of algorithms, declining moderation, and bogus misinformation and disinformation raises big questions about what those users actually perceive to be news.

The Pew study doesn't get into that and, from what I can tell, the responses to its surveys are self-reported in terms of the definition of news.

If Pew really wanted do a public service, it would drill into what Americans perceive as news on these and other platforms, because some of the research I've seen from other organizations -- principally IPSOS -- suggest it may not always be bona fide, objective, fact-based news reporting that they perceive as news.

apps, consumer experience, data, facebook, news, research, social media, tiktok, x

5 comments about "Good News/Bad News On Where Americans Are Getting Their News".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 25, 2025 at 1:04 p.m.
Agreed, Joe, about Pew doing a better job in defining "news". In fairness to Pew, however, it's latest study found that only 21% of the adults surveyed claimed that they "often" get "news" from social media whle 32% said this happens "sometimes", 19% said "rarely" and 27% replied that it "never" happens. So, contrary to what some may believe, social media is hardly the primary source of "news"--whatever that mean--- accross the total adult population though, sadly, its far more important to the under 25 group which shuns most TV newscasts.
Reply

John Grono from GAP Research, September 25, 2025 at 5:37 p.m.

Thank you Ed. And thank you Pew Research Centre. So ... if you see claims that look dodgy remember that one-in-four adults means Reach has a maxium of 73%.

MICHALE STEVENS from summitmedia, September 26, 2025 at 8:35 a.m.

when looking at the chart you included with your story, tiktok is actually tied wth truth social for #2 with both showing 55% of users regularly getting their news from the site. i'm surprised with the title of your piece that you didn't use the "News consumption by social media site" chart that shows the percentage of adults who say they regularly GET news from each social media site, which shows significant increases in tiktok 17% and youtube 12% usage in the last 5 years.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 26, 2025 at 10:23 a.m.

The phrasing is not that they get "their news"--implyng much or all of it--but just "get news", which doesn't necessarily mean most or all of it. Lookng at the chart, there seems to be a lot of duplication in the "news" sources used across social media.

Dan C. from MS Entertainment, September 26, 2025 at 11:39 a.m.

The major issue is that commentary and editorial is injected into most "news" now that who the hell knows if it's "news" or commentary. The legacy networks are most guilty, as well as all of the dying newspapers.

Personally, I only find "news" about local stories impacting local communities. Almost everything about national or international implications has spin and ideology spun into the story.