Teenagers are likelier than older Americans to turn to nontraditional sources—social media and influencers—for news, signaling a generational shift in how people find information.
A national Media Insight Project study found 36 percent of U.S. adults say they get news from social media at least once a day; for 13- to 17-year-olds, that rises to 57 percent. Similarly, 43 percent of adults say they get information on national issues and events from influencers or independent creators at least “sometimes,” compared with 57 percent of teens. The project is a collaboration of the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the American Press Institute and journalism schools at Northwestern University and the University of Maryland.
The poll highlights social media’s pervasiveness in teens’ lives and shows more teens consuming news via platforms or independent creators rather than directly from national or local news organizations. “Traditional national and local outlets continue to stand out as a trusted source, but people, especially younger audiences, are also building relationships with younger creators they believe are transparent and authentic,” said Robyn Tomlin, executive director of the American Press Institute. “That reality has enormous implications for the future of news.”
Beyond social platforms, teens are also more likely to use search engines and AI chatbots for news. About four in 10 teens get news daily from search, while roughly two in 10 report getting news from AI chatbots. The survey found little age difference in use of digital news sites or apps, and in television and streaming: about four in 10 U.S. adults and a similar share of teens get news from TV at least once a day, with a comparable share using digital news sites. “The idea that television is going away is a misapprehension,” said Tom Rosenstiel, a University of Maryland journalism professor on the survey team. “Watching news through video is not going away. It’s changing. The way you see it on YouTube is different than on the CBS Evening News.”
Despite turning to influencers and AI, many teens remain skeptical. While teens are more likely than adults to report having “a great deal of confidence” in information from AI chatbots, overall confidence is low: only 11 percent of teens have a high level of certainty in AI-provided information, compared with 4 percent of adults. About one-third of teens expressed high confidence in their ability to tell whether content was made by a human or AI, versus about two in 10 adults.
Confidence in influencers is also limited. Only 12 percent of teenagers say they have “a great deal of confidence” in information from independent creators or influencers—higher than the 6 percent of adults who say the same, but still low overall.
The survey found teens are more interested than adults in celebrity, music, movies, sports and entertainment news, while adults show greater interest in political and economic coverage. Both teens and adults report news fatigue, especially around politics: most say they often or sometimes try to avoid stories about national government and politics, and about six in 10 say they try to sidestep news related to President Donald Trump. “People are tired of the feeling that things are spinning out of control that they’re very judicious in what they’re spending their time on,” Rosenstiel said.
Rosenstiel noted teens seek information differently and are much less likely than adults to avoid celebrity news or news delivered via social media. He suggested that for many people, the most important journalism is what helps them live their lives, even if it falls outside conventional definitions. “Part of the problem for traditional journalism is the traditional journalism definition of what is real news.”
