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PBS NewsHourSEP 25 2024
Survey: More Americans Regularly Getting News on TikTok
Above: The TikTok logo displays on a smartphone screen in Athens, Greece, on September 12, 2024. Image copyright: NurPhoto/Contributor/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Facts
A new Pew Research analysis published on Tuesday shows that the share of adult Americans who regularly use TikTok for news has grown from 3% to 17% over the past four years.
More than half of TikTok users get their news from the platform, up from 22% in 2020, meaning that TikTok has jumped from sixth to third in the rankings of platforms with the highest percentage of users who use them to source news — behind only X (Twitter) and TruthSocial.
The survey completed last month also found that adults under 30 stand out as the age group most likely to use TikTok as a news source in the US, with 39% of the respondents in this subset doing so — up from 32% last year and 9% in 2020.
The Spin
Narrative A
TikTok continues to gain prominence as a news source every year, particularly among young adults — a concerning phenomenon considering the platform has no safeguards to stop the spread of false information, nor uphold ethical journalism. Humankind is sleepwalking into a new era of disinformation.
Narrative B
News consumption has naturally evolved from printed papers to radio, television, and now social media to meet audience demand. Given TikTok's popularity, it's only natural that its users turn to it for news. The app indeed has issues, but such teething problems by no means indicate that journalism or its values are in decline.
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