Social media is now the main source of news globally

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Social media has overtaken traditional outlets as the main global source of news. This finding comes from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, whose annual report into news habits found that 54% of people use social media to consume news, versus the 51% who access news sites and apps. It also found that the proportion of Britons who trust media outlets has fallen to 30%, down from 50% a decade ago. At the same time, even though people are using social media more, they trust it even less than traditional sources, with just 22% seeing it as reliable. This suggests the reliance on these platforms stems from the fact that their algorithms serve users other content, with a bit of news thrown in.