2019 will be a crucial year for social media. Platforms will have to collectively pick up the pieces from the wreckage that was 2018. And companies will need to rethink their digital strategies to effectively connect with users.
Social media as a source of news is falling, messaging apps for news are growing, subscriptions for online news are steadily rising, general trust in the news remains relatively stable and fake news on the internet is a top priority. These are some of the key findings from this year’s Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which was published today.
The report, which is based on a survey of more than 75,000 news consumers in 37 markets from 25 countries, found that:
Trust in the media is down, online video use is up, more and more people get their news on mobiles and social media and consumers are still not willing to pay for online news. These are some of the key findings from this year’s Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Here are five takeaways from the report, which is based on a survey of 50,000 online news consumers from 26 countries:
Just over half say they use social media as a source of news, while around one in ten say it is their main source. Facebook is the biggest platform for finding, consuming and sharing news (44%), while over a quarter of 18-24s say social media (28%) is their main source of news, overtaking television (24%) for the first time.