For the first time globally, social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram have overtaken television and news websites as the most widely used way to access news, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026. “This shift has now happened in around two-thirds of the markets we cover, with direct access still leading in West and Central Europe and in more affluent Asian markets,” according to the report.

The report, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, tracks news consumption across dozens of markets. Its 2026 edition, covering 48 markets, describes a news landscape that is “more platform-based, video-led and creator-shaped, with news becoming less trusted, less central to daily life, and harder to monetise.”

Platforms overtake TV and news websites

Since 2021, social and video networks have risen to become the top source of news globally, now used by 54 percent of respondents. They sit ahead of television, which dropped from 64 percent to 52 percent over the same period, though social networks themselves slipped slightly from their 56 percent baseline. News websites and apps fell precipitously from 63 percent to 51 percent during this time period. Radio dropped from 26 percent to 21 percent, and print from 24 percent to 16 percent. The share of people consuming no news at all rose from 4 percent to 6 percent.

Meanwhile, trust in news overall has hit its lowest point since 2015. Only 37 percent of global respondents say they trust most news most of the time, down 3 percentage points from 2025. In the United States, that figure stands at 25 percent, and among right-leaning Americans, at just 15 percent. A small number of markets recorded modest gains, including Kenya which rose 3 points, Japan and Spain 2 points each.

India: YouTube, WhatsApp, and a trust deficit

The data from India underscores this massive migration toward digital and social spaces. The report notes that “India witnessed a 4 pp (percentage points) decrease in trust levels,” with overall trust in news standing at 39 percent – two percentage points above the global average. This marks a notable shift: the 2025 report had described India’s trust levels as having “remained largely stable over the last few years,” with the figure then at 43 percent. On platforms, “around 58 percent of respondents rely on YouTube for news,” while WhatsApp is the second biggest platform for news at 56 percent, up 10 points from 2021. At the same time, 52 percent of Indian respondents sometimes or often avoid the news.

Even higher usage for news is reported in countries such as India for YouTube, the report notes, describing it as “a more mature platform which has grown less since 2021, but remains by some distance the biggest video network for news around the world.” 

Legacy TV has not collapsed entirely, according to the report. It notes that in India, “legacy sources like TV (44 percent) have retained popularity for news by offering multiple avenues such as traditional subscription models or connected TV, blurring the lines between traditional broadcast and digital content formats.”

The report identifies India as a case where press freedom pressures have shaped the creator landscape. “In countries where press freedom is under pressure, we find news creators as a source of opposition and scrutiny,” the report states. In India, “where Prime Minister Narendra Modi exercised considerable control over leading media outlets – especially television – the two most-mentioned creators are Dhruv Rathee and Ravish Kumar, who are both known for being critical of the government.”

Globally, individual news creators occupy an ambiguous position in this landscape. Twenty-seven percent of global respondents get news from creators or influencers, though only 3 percent say creators fully meet all their news needs. Audiences broadly find creators more entertaining and easier to understand than traditional outlets, but less trustworthy and less impartial. 

Regulation tightens around AI content and creators

Early in 2026, the Indian government introduced amendments to the IT Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code. The amendments cover identifying and labelling synthetically generated information (SGI), and streamlining procedures to take down content flagged by authorities.

Critics raised concerns that these amendments may dilute procedural safeguards around the removal of content and in the protection of free speech. According to the report, concerns include “a reduced time limit for platforms to remove content, exercising restraint before publishing content that may violate the law, overlooking benign or creative purposes of AI by way of a broad definition for SGI, and overreach of executive powers to take down content.”

On the AI front, Indian newsrooms are experimenting unevenly. Scroll.in “developed a tool that extracts and converts media from a text article into a short video for social channels.” Meanwhile, The Hindu “experimented with an AI character during the recent Assembly elections for poll-related video news.” 

AI integration is “uneven across newsrooms due to a lack of resources, knowledge, or genuine concerns around the dilution of editorial safeguards and trust in news.”

Trust in legacy brands holds, but with caveats

Despite declining overall trust, trust in legacy print publishers and public broadcasters remains comparatively high in India. 

“At the brand level, trust in legacy print publishers and public broadcasters remains high,” the report states. The Times of India leads at 69 percent, followed by Hindustan Times (67 percent), The Economic Times (65 percent), and The Hindu and The Indian Express (both 63–64 percent). Digital-native outlets fare lower with Scroll.in at 48 percent and The Wire at 51 percent.

A note on methodology

A significant caveat runs through the India data. The report repeatedly notes that findings “are based on a survey of mainly English-speaking, online news users in India – a small subset of a larger, more diverse, media market.”

With internet penetration at 70 percent, the gap between the online sample and the national population is significant, and “findings in this online poll are not nationally representative and will tend to under-represent the continued importance of traditional media such as TV and print.”

A shift across all generations

The platform shift is not confined to India alone. Globally, this is not a story restricted to a generation. Social media as a primary news source grew across every age group: from 52 percent among 18-24 (up 12 percentage points since 2021) to 18 percent among those 55 and older (up 7 percentage points), with the sharpest increases recorded among 25-34 and 35-44, both up 13 points.

Television declined as a news source across all age groups, with the steepest drop of 9 percentage points recorded among 35-44. The report adds that “younger audiences are unlikely ever to acquire the news habits of their parents: 56 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds have never regularly read a newspaper.”

Rise of the video format

The report also documents a significant move towards the video format. About 77 percent of global respondents watch online news videos every week, and a majority do so across all markets covered. Consumption of video on news organisations’ own sites and apps, however, fell 5 percentage points from 2025 and 10 points since 2021, suggesting audiences are watching news videos but not on the publishers’ own websites.

On YouTube, the most popular formats are the 2–5-minute video, watched by 44 percent of users, and content under 2 minutes, watched by 37 percent. About 35 percent watch videos between 6 and 20 minutes, and 23 percent watch content longer than 20 minutes; a fifth go to the platform to watch live broadcasts. TikTok skews sharply towards shorter videos: 55 percent of its news video viewers watch content under 2 minutes, and only 12 percent watch content over 20 minutes. The report separately notes that “TikTok has been banned in India and does not operate in Hong Kong.”

AI chatbots in the news ecosystem

Into this shifting landscape has come a new source of news, namely AI chatbots. Weekly use of AI chatbots for news rose from 7 percent to 10 percent globally between 2025 and 2026, with usage among under-35s at 16 percent, compared with 7 percent among those aged 35 and above.

Trust in chatbot-generated news responses, however, remains low (just 20 percent globally), and roughly half of users click through to get more details, while just under half do so to verify the answer or learn more about the source. The report notes that “those accessing news through AI chatbots tend to be highly engaged rather than disengaged users abandoning news brands.”

The preference for impartial news

The preference for impartial news, though slightly eroded, remains the dominant expectation of the respondents. Almost half (45 percent) of respondents still prefer news that does not take sides, and a similar share (46 percent) also believe that consuming news that does not take sides is best for others in society. 

Those preferring impartial news still outnumber those preferring news aligned to their own viewpoint by more than two to one. Those preferring news that challenges their viewpoint rose slightly from 11 percent to 13 percent, while “don’t know” responses rose from 14 percent to 19 percent, suggesting a degree of growing uncertainty about news preferences.

The broader picture of rising platform dependence, declining trust, and growing misinformation concerns, holds for India as much as anywhere else. But the report’s own caveat is worth holding onto given that its India findings are drawn from a survey of mainly English-speaking, online news users. This is a small and unrepresentative slice of one of the world’s most diverse media markets.

Small teams can do great things. All it takes is a subscription. Subscribe now and power Newslaundry’s work.