More TikTok users turning to the app for news

The percentage of TikTok users who regularly access news via the app rose to 43% in 2023 from 22% a year earlier, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center, which found half of US adults get at least some news from social media.

News organizations are competing with TikTok and other social media platforms for consumers' attention and advertisers' budgets, with many seeking ways to engage TikTok’s large and coveted Gen Z audience.

Pew’s analysis of news consumption by Americans, based on a survey of 8,842 US adults conducted from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1, 2023, found news websites or apps were used by 67% of those surveyed.

Meta-owned Facebook is the most popular social media platform for news, with 30% of Americans saying they regularly access news there, followed by YouTube with 26%, Instagram with 16% and TikTok with 14%, Pew found.

News consumption on Facebook persists despite Meta’s efforts to reduce the prevalence of news and other civic content on its platforms in recent years as it faces regulatory pressure in key markets around the world.

Regular news consumers on Nextdoor, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are more likely to be women, Pew found, while regular news consumers on Reddit, X, LinkedIn and Alphabet-owned YouTube are more likely to be men.

Under owner Elon Musk, regular news consumers on X, the platform formerly named Twitter, are roughly split politically, with 46% Republican or Republican-leaning, and 49% Democrat or Democratic-leaning, according to Pew.