A report found that more young people are accessing news on TikTok, with some social media users increasingly following influencers rather than journalists.
Social media apps are becoming one of the fastest growing social networks, with 44% of 18-24 year olds using it for any purpose and 20% using it to get news.
The annual study by Reuters Research surveyed 93,895 adults in 46 countries, including the UK, with approximately 2,000 people in each market.
Last year’s report found that 40% of 18-24 year olds use Tiktok, with 15% of those using the platform for news.
investigation found Facebook It’s becoming less popular as a news source, with just 28 percent saying they access news through the app this year, compared to 42 percent in 2016.
Research shows that in Tik Tok, instagram and live chatwhen it comes to news topics, users pay more attention to celebrities and social media influencers than to journalists and media companies.
About 55% of TikTok users and 52% of Instagram users get their news from “celebrities” on their respective platforms, compared to just 33% of TikTok users and 42% of Instagram users who get news from mainstream media and journalists news.
The survey also found that TikTok users (44%) trust “average people” to get news more than other platforms, none of which exceed 37%.
However, according to the report, news usage on Twitter has remained “relatively stable” in most countries.
As a form of reducing “depressing news”, the report also found that audiences were increasingly avoiding stories such as America’s wars. Ukraine and cost of living crisis.
Research shows a general decline in news interest in many countries, with high levels of selective news avoidance, with 36% saying they actively avoid news “sometimes or often”.
Among news avoiders, 53 percent said they scroll through the news and change channels when it happens, while 32 percent said they avoid topics that lower mood or increase anxiety.
Others said that the news report was too “emotional”.
Read more from Sky News:
Astronomers make rare Star Wars-style planet discovery
Thousands of Neighborhoods Going Black — Here’s Why
The report also found that trust in news has fallen by two percentage points over the past year, with 56 percent saying they are concerned about telling real news from fake news on the internet – up two percentage points from last year.
Lead report author Nic Newman said: “It’s clear that many websites and apps are optimized for those hyper-engaged in every twist and turn of today’s news (and political) agenda.
“But these approaches also appear to be prohibitive for large segments of the public—with potential long-term implications for civic and democratic participation.”
Tiktok has faced criticism in recent years, TikTok app banned on government devices In Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom due to alleged links between the platform and the Chinese government. In Montana, it has been banned from being installed on any device.
Office of the Information Commissioner It said last month that about 1.4 million children under the age of 13 in the UK regularly use the platform, and that TikTok was not paying enough attention to the industry’s abuse of its terms and conditions, resulting in children under 13 potentially being sent “harmful, inappropriate Content” – Discover TikTok competitions.
At the same time, Cyberwise said that compared with other forms of traditional media, the use of TikTok may have negative impacts on children, such as harm to privacy and self-esteem, and users may be exposed to negative comments or even sexual predation. the space of the reader.
According to Statista, 15% of TikTok users aged 13 to 17 in a 2022 UK survey had experienced anonymous trolling, and another 15% had seen pornographic images on the platform.
The survey also found problems with other social media, with 14% of UK teens using YouTube having seen violence or gore recently, and one in 10 respondents seeing images on Instagram about dietary restrictions.