Local television news is still preferred over all other sources for both teens, young adults, and older adults, but younger Americans are more likely to also seek out news information online via search or social media platforms.
- Teens: 15% engage with local news daily and 31% engage with local news at least weekly.
- Young Adults ages 18-29: 47% get news often or at least sometimes from television.
- Adults ages 30-49: 51% get news often or sometimes from television
- Adults ages 50-64: 74% get news often or sometimes from television
Not surprisingly, according to a new fact sheet from Pew, social media is a growing source of news for all Americans:
- TikTok’s Growth: “Just over half of (American adult) TikTok users (55%) say they regularly get news on the site, up from 22% in 2020.”
- Different Sources for Women and Men: “Women are more likely to regularly get news from Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, while men are more likely to say they get it from YouTube, X and Reddit.”
- Choices Vary Based on Political Preferences: “Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to say they get news from Instagram, TikTok and Reddit. Roughly equal shares of each party, though, say they regularly get news from YouTube.”
Last spring, one American high school asked their students about their news habits and some responses included:
- “I receive some news on social media, like TikTok and Instagram, but I usually don’t pay attention to it (unless I actually heard it from TV news) because it is very easy to spread fake news.”
- “I get news from social media apps like TikTok and Instagram. Social media is fast and shows different views, while websites tell more detailed news. Social media allows me to engage with news in real time and see different perspectives.”
Since our teens are just weeks, months, or a few short years away from being able to participate as voting citizens, they must build their news literacy skills now. Adults can model and explicitly talk to our teens about engaging with varied and reliable news sources. Given the challenging political landscape, some adults might benefit from referencing How to Teach News Literacy in Polarizing Times from the News Literacy Project.