Digital sources have become a significant part of Americans’ news intake, with social media playing an especially important role among younger generations. Overall, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they get their news from social media at least sometimes, up slightly from past years.
Facebook and YouTube surpass all other social media sites as the places where Americans regularly get their news, with nearly one-third of U.S. adults saying they regularly get their news from these two sites.
Smaller shares of Americans regularly get their news from Instagram (20%), TikTok (17%), and X (formerly Twitter) (12%), and even smaller share get their news from other sites, including Reddit (8%), Nextdoor (5%), Snapchat (5%), WhatsApp (5%), LinkedIn (4%), Truth Social (3%), and Rumble (2%).
News consumption via social media sites
Percentage of U.S. adults who regularly get news from each social media site
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted July 15-August 4, 2024.
Pew Research Center
Some social media sites stand out as news destinations among many users, despite having a relatively small overall audience: For example, 59% of X users get their news there, and a similar percentage (57%) get their news from Truth Social, a site owned by former President Donald Trump; meanwhile, only 14% of LinkedIn users regularly get their news on the platform.
Nearly half (52%) of TikTok users say they regularly get their news from the site, up from 43% in 2023 and just 22% in 2020. The share of users getting news from several other sites is also growing, including YouTube and Instagram.
Social media sites by percentage of users who regularly get news
Percentage of users who regularly get news from each social media site
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted July 15-August 4, 2024.
Pew Research Center
The people who regularly get their news on different social media sites often vary by gender, age, political affiliation and other factors: For example, women are more likely to regularly consume news on Nextdoor (64%), TikTok (62%), Facebook (60%), Snapchat (60%) and Instagram (59%), while men are more likely to regularly consume news on Reddit (68%), X (64%), Rumble (60%), Truth Social (58%) and YouTube (57%).
News users on Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, X, and Reddit tend to be younger than on other sites. Other patterns vary across sites. For example, 48% of news users on WhatsApp are Hispanic, the highest percentage of any site. And LinkedIn has the highest percentage of news users with college degrees (55%).
Partisan differences also emerge among people who regularly get their news from some social media sites: The vast majority of regular news consumers on Truth Social (88%) and Rumble (83%) are Republicans or Republican-leaning Independents, as are half on Facebook and YouTube. On Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Reddit and Nextdoor, news consumers are more likely to be Democrats or Democrat-leaning. X News consumers are roughly evenly split by political party.
(See the Appendix for data on the demographic and partisan makeup of U.S. adults who regularly get their news from each social media site.)
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This fact sheet was compiled by Research Assistant Christopher St. Aubin and Research Analyst Jacob Liedke.
Read the methodology and overview.
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of major funder The Pew Charitable Trusts. This is the latest analysis in Pew Research Center’s ongoing study of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
For a more detailed analysis of news consumption on social media, see the following links:
News Platforms Fact Sheet (September 17, 2024) Nearly Half of TikTok Users Under 30 Say They Turn to TikTok for Political and News Updates (August 20, 2024) How Americans Get Their News on TikTok, X, Facebook, and Instagram (June 12, 2024) Many Americans Find Value in Getting News on Social Media, But Concerns Over Inaccuracies Are Growing (February 7, 2024) Five Facts About How Americans Use Facebook, Twenty Years After Its Launch (February 2, 2024) Americans Don’t Follow News as Much as They Used to (October 24, 2023) U.S. Adults Under 30 Trust Information from Social Media as Much as National News (October 27, 2022) The Role of Alternative Social Media in the News and Information Environment (October 6, 2022) Many Americans Get Their News on YouTube. News organizations and independent producers can coexist and thrive (September 28, 2020)
Read all reports and blog posts related to your news platform and source.
