In the United States, social media and video platforms have become a news source for 54% of people, overtaking television news at 50% for the first time, and websites and apps at 48%. This comes from the Digital News Report 2025, which the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published on 17 June 2025, based on a sample of nearly 100,000 people in 48 countries.
The report’s authors sum up the shift in one sentence. “An accelerating shift towards consumption via social media and video platforms is further diminishing the influence of ‘institutional journalism’,” says its executive summary.
Trust holds, but audiences are moving away from media
Overall trust in news remains at 40% and has been flat for a third year. Within Europe, however, the range is wide. Finland shows the highest trust at 67%, while Hungary and Greece sit at the other end, both at 22%. 40% of people say they avoid the news sometimes or often, compared with 29% in 2017.
At the same time, the weight of individuals is growing. In the week after the inauguration, 22% of the American sample came across news or commentary from the podcaster Joe Rogan.
How creators reach audiences
News reach varies from platform to platform. Globally, 16% of people use TikTok for news, roughly 11% in Europe, while YouTube reaches 30% globally. France shows how strong a single creator can be. There, HugoDécrypte, whose real name is Hugo Travers, reaches 22% of people under 35 with content that he mainly spreads through YouTube and TikTok.
Purchase decisions are also shifting to creators
The shift is not limited to news. According to the Digital Media Trends 2025 report by Deloitte, based on a survey of 3,595 American consumers conducted in October 2024, about half of Gen Z and millennials feel a stronger personal connection to creators on social media than to television personalities or actors.
This carries through to purchasing. For Gen Z, content and advertising on social media influence purchase decisions the most, for 63% of them. Advertising on streaming services influences only 28% of this generation. Among millennials, the ratio is 49% to 25%. Social media therefore clearly leads streaming for both generations. Deloitte frames this as short videos functioning for younger generations as new television hits, and creators as new heroes of reality shows.
Where European brands now meet the audience
For a European brand, this points in one direction. The audience that used to be reached through television, websites and streaming ads now discovers both news and products through individuals with their own audiences. The pace varies across European markets depending on how strong trust in traditional media is in each. Attention and money are moving from institutions to people who hold their own audiences.
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