Online news sources, particularly social media sites and apps, are the dominant means by which younger people in the UK access news, meaning their direct relationships with traditional news brands are weakening, Ofcom has found.

Ofcom’s News Consumption in the UK 2022/23 report reveals that older teens and young adults aged 16-24 are much more likely to consume news online than adults generally (83 percent vs. 68 percent). And usually, it’s via social media on their mobile phones (63 percent vs 39 percent).

People in this age group are also much less likely than the average adult to access news content from traditional media sources, like TV (47 percent vs 70 percent), radio (25 percent vs 40 percent) and print newspapers (16 percent vs 26 percent).

The study, according to a statement put out by the British regulator, also finds that 16-24s reach online news in a different way to older generations. 

They’re much less likely than other adults to navigate straight to traditional news websites (9 percent vs 26 percent) and more commonly go via social media (37 percent vs 24 percent). This behaviour suggests youngsters have less of a direct connection with established news brands.

Social media platforms dominate the top five most popular news sources among 16-24s. Instagram (44 percent) is the most-used single news source, followed by Facebook 33 percent, Twitter 31percent, and TikTok, 29 percent. 

Coming in joint second, BBC One (33 percent) is the only traditional media source to feature in their top five.

Among the youngest children in the study aged 12-15, TikTok is now the most used single source of news across all platforms (28 percent), followed by YouTube (25 percent) and Instagram (25 percent). However, taking into account all news content across its platforms, the BBC still has the highest reach of any news organisation among this age group (39 percent).

The news topics of most interest to younger teens generally are: ‘sports or sports personalities’ (23 percent), ‘music news or singers’ (15 percent), ‘celebrities or famous people’ (11 percent), ‘serious things going on in the UK’ (8 percent) and news about ‘animals or the environment’ (9 percent). 

Lighter news topics are of particular appeal across social media sites TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.

Ofcom’s annual report also looks more broadly at the news habits of UK adults across TV, radio, print, social media, podcasts, other websites, apps and magazines.