Category World News

Social media and video platforms have eclipsed traditional media as news sources in the United States for the first time, a report has found.

Fifth-four percent of surveyed Americans used platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok for news during the previous week, up from 27 percent in 2013, the report by the Reuters Institute showed on Tuesday.

Only 50 percent relied on TV, while 48 percent looked at news websites or apps, according to the 2025 Digital News Report.

Young people drove the shift, with 54 percent of Americans aged 18-24 and half of those aged 25-34 choosing social media and video platforms as their “main” source of news.

The move towards social media was strongest in the US and Brazil, where 34 percent and 35 percent of respondents, respectively, described it as their “main” source of news, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Denmark and Japan.

Individual online influencers, most of them right-leaning, are also reaching large numbers of news consumers, the report found.

More than one-fifth of US respondents said they had seen podcaster Joe Rogan discuss the news during the week following US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, while 12-14 percent encountered Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens or Ben Shapiro, according to the report.

The report also found that the so-called “Trump bump” experienced by news platforms in 2016 has not carried over into his second presidency, with only social media and video platforms seeing their audiences rise.

Across nearly 50 countries surveyed, four in 10 respondents said they trusted most news “most of the time,” a figure that has been stable for the past three years, according to the report.

Trust was highest in Nigeria, where 68 percent expressed confidence, followed by Finland, Kenya, Denmark, South Africa and Thailand.

Respondents in Greece and Hungary had the least trust, with just 22 percent believing the news, followed by those in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Nic Newman, the report’s author, said the declining influence of traditional media has been a boon for politicians, who are “increasingly able to bypass traditional journalism in favour of friendly partisan media, ‘personalities’, and ‘influencers’ who often get special access but rarely ask difficult questions”.

“These trends are increasingly pronounced in the United States under Donald Trump, as well as parts of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, but are moving more slowly elsewhere, especially where news brands maintain a strong connection with audiences,” Newman said in an overview of the report.

“In countries where press freedom is under threat, alternative ecosystems also offer opportunities, at their best, to bring fresh perspectives and challenge repressive governments,” Newman said.

This is how things stand on Tuesday, June 17:

Battlefield

• A massive attack overnight on Kyiv killed at least 14 people and wounded 44, officials in the Ukrainian capital said on Tuesday. Russia struck 27 locations around the city with missiles and drones, damaging residential buildings, educational institutions and critical infrastructure facilities. Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said a further six people were injured in strikes in Odesa on the Black Sea, and another in Chernihiv, in the north.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at his country. Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko said that a citizen of the United States was killed in the city’s Solomianskyi district.
• Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Zelenskyy, slammed the Russian strikes on residential buildings in Kyiv, accusing Moscow of “continuing its war against civilians”.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday that air defence units intercepted and destroyed 147 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, including the Moscow region, overnight.
• Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that two Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow had been repelled.

Diplomacy

• • In a clear continuation of Kyiv’s bid to persuade United States President Donald Trump to drop his support for Moscow, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha declared that the attack on Kyiv as the G7 summit was being held in Canada sent a signal of disrespect to the US and other partners who have called for an end to the war.
  • Zelenskyy met with Austrian counterpart Alexander Van der Bellen and Chancellor Christian Stocker, and secured pledges of non-military aid. The two countries signed agreements on issues like de-mining, energy and cybersecurity. Austria has had a policy of neutrality in place since 1955.
  • From Austria, Zelenskyy travelled to the G7 summit, where he pushed for sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine. Zelenskyy also discussed buying US weapons with Trump, but added that US military aid was not on the agenda.
  • Ukraine said Russia has returned the bodies of 1,245 Ukrainians killed in the war, concluding the final stage of a deal to repatriate more than 6,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers, reached during two rounds of peace talks in Turkiye earlier this month. Russia’s Ministry of Defence disputed the figure, saying that the bodies of 1,248 Ukrainians had been returned.
  • Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu arrived in North Korea to meet with leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday, according to Russian state media. Shoigu’s second visit to Pyongyang in three months regards an unspecified “special” mission from President Putin. Kim has supplied Russia with thousands of troops and large shipments of military equipment, including artillery and ballistic missiles, to support its war in Ukraine.

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