71% of respondents, compared to 70% who watch TV news bulletins, said they get their news from online sources, according to research by broadcast regulator Ofcom.
Online sources increased from 68% to 71% in the past year, while social media saw a surge as well, going from 47% to 52%. 82% of those between the ages of 16 and 24 reported using social media for news.
Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram were the online news sources that were most frequently mentioned.
With 40% of respondents stating they utilized Meta, the company that runs Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, for news, it was the second-most popular news source in the study.
With 68% of respondents stating they go to the for news, it is still the most popular source overall. This study, however, just looks at what individuals say they do; analysis based on actual usage, for example, reveals that 75% of UK citizens receive News on a weekly average.
Traditional news sources saw the largest declines in the poll. The percentage of respondents who said they used newspapers and their websites fell from 39% to 34%. TV news dropped to 70% from 75%. Moreover, news online dropped from 22% to 18%.
But the survey doesn’t track how often people use particular websites. The two biggest news organizations are the news (1.2 billion visits) and 710 million visits.
