News consumption is increasingly digital and multi-platform. In 2025, 86% of U.S. adults said they got news at least sometimes from a smartphone, computer, or tablet, while UK adults used an average of 6.9 individual news sources across all platforms in 2024. These figures come from the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet (2025) and Ofcom News Consumption in the UK 2024 supporting data.
Table of contents
- Digital platforms lead U.S. news access
- How Americans prefer to get news
- Age differences in online news habits
- Education and digital news consumption
- Broadcast and print channels still matter
- How many news sources UK adults use
- Radio news use in the UK
Digital platforms lead U.S. news access
The broadest U.S. measure in the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet (2025) combines smartphones, computers, and tablets. Eighty-six percent of U.S. adults said they get news from one of those devices at least sometimes. The “often” figure was 56%, meaning that digital-device news is not only occasional for many adults but a frequent part of their routine.
Specific online channels also reach large shares of the adult population. Sixty-five percent of U.S. adults said they get news often or sometimes from news websites or apps. Search was close behind at 63%, while social media reached 53%. These are overlapping behaviors: the figures describe the share using each channel, so they should not be added together as a single total.
Other digital formats also appear in the 2025 figures. Thirty-two percent of U.S. adults said they get news often or sometimes from podcasts, and 30% said the same about email newsletters. Nine percent reported getting news often or sometimes from AI chatbots. Together, these measures show a news environment that includes publisher-owned destinations, discovery tools, social feeds, audio, email, and newer conversational services.
The figures are especially relevant to students navigating campus life because they describe several different paths to the same kind of information. A student might encounter a news story through a website or app, find another story through search, and see a third through social media. The statistics establish the reach of those channels, but they do not show how often a particular person uses more than one of them or which source they trust most.
How Americans prefer to get news
Reach and preference are different measures. The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet (2025) reports that 34% of U.S. adults prefer television for getting news. Television is therefore the leading single preference in the supplied figures, even though digital devices reach more adults at least sometimes.
Digital preferences are distributed across several channels. Twenty-one percent of U.S. adults prefer news websites or apps, 14% prefer social media, and 10% prefer search. Podcasts are preferred by 6%, while 3% prefer email newsletters. Fewer than 1% prefer AI chatbots for getting news.
Radio and print each account for 5% of stated preference. That is lower than television’s 34% and lower than the combined preference figures for news websites or apps, social media, and search, but it does not mean those legacy formats have disappeared. The access measures show that 64% of U.S. adults get news from television at least sometimes, while 32% get television news often. Radio and print remain part of the measured mix as well.
| Preferred U.S. news channel | Share of adults | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Television | 34% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 |
| News websites or apps | 21% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 |
| Social media | 14% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 |
| Search | 10% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 |
| Podcasts | 6% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 |
| Radio | 5% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 |
| 5% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 | |
| Email newsletters | 3% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 |
| AI chatbots | Fewer than 1% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 2025 |
The contrast between preference and access is useful when interpreting news consumption statistics. A channel can have a large audience without being the first choice for most people. Television illustrates that distinction: 64% get news from it at least sometimes, 32% often, and 34% prefer it. Digital devices have a broader at-least-sometimes reach, while individual digital preferences are split among several options.
Age differences in online news habits
The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet (2025) reports clear age differences for websites and apps, social media, search, podcasts, email newsletters, and AI chatbots. Among U.S. adults ages 18–29, 76% get news often or sometimes from social media. That is the highest age-group figure supplied for social media. The same measure is 46% among adults ages 50–64 and 28% among adults ages 65+.
Search also reaches a larger share of younger adults in the supplied figures. Sixty-nine percent of adults ages 18–29 get news often or sometimes from search, compared with 65% of adults ages 50–64 and 50% of adults ages 65+.
News websites or apps show a different pattern. Sixty percent of adults ages 18–29 use them often or sometimes for news, compared with 71% of adults ages 50–64 and 57% of adults ages 65+. The middle age group has the highest supplied figure for this channel, while the oldest group has the lowest.
Podcast news use is 39% among adults ages 18–29, 29% among adults ages 50–64, and 18% among adults ages 65+. Email newsletters show a narrower spread: 28% for ages 18–29, 32% for ages 50–64, and 31% for ages 65+.
AI chatbots are the least-used channel in every supplied age group, although the figures are not identical. Thirteen percent of adults ages 18–29 get news often or sometimes from AI chatbots, compared with 7% of adults ages 50–64 and 4% of adults ages 65+.
| U.S. adults getting news often or sometimes | Ages 18–29 | Ages 50–64 | Ages 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| News websites or apps | 60% | 71% | 57% |
| Social media | 76% | 46% | 28% |
| Search | 69% | 65% | 50% |
| Podcasts | 39% | 29% | 18% |
| Email newsletters | 28% | 32% | 31% |
| AI chatbots | 13% | 7% | 4% |
For campus and student-life readers, the age pattern is most pronounced for social media, search, podcasts, and AI chatbots. The figures do not measure accuracy, credibility, or time spent. They measure whether respondents say they get news often or sometimes from each channel.
Education and digital news consumption
Education is another dimension in the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet (2025). Among U.S. adults with a college degree or more, 75% get news often or sometimes from news websites or apps. The same group reports 49% for social media, 67% for search, 38% for podcasts, 35% for email newsletters, and 9% for AI chatbots.
These figures describe a broad digital mix rather than a single dominant route. News websites or apps reach the largest share among the listed channels for adults with a college degree or more, followed by search and social media. Podcasts and email newsletters reach more than one-third of this group, while AI chatbots remain a smaller channel at 9%.
The education measure is not a direct comparison with every age group in the supplied data. It is a separate grouping of U.S. adults with a college degree or more, and the source does not provide a corresponding figure here for adults with less education. The safest reading is therefore descriptive: the supplied college-degree-or-more figures show substantial use of multiple online news formats.
For students, these numbers provide context for the information habits surrounding college communities. They indicate that website and app use, search, social media, podcasts, and newsletters can all be meaningful parts of the news mix. They do not establish that education causes any particular behavior, and they do not identify what subjects respondents read or listen to.
Broadcast and print channels still matter
Television remains prominent in the U.S. measures. The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet (2025) reports that 64% of U.S. adults get news from television at least sometimes and 32% get it often. Television is also the preferred channel for 34% of U.S. adults.
Radio has a smaller stated preference but remains measurable. Eleven percent of U.S. adults often get news from radio, and 5% prefer radio for getting news. Print is used often by 7% of U.S. adults, while 5% prefer printed newspapers or magazines.
These results should be kept separate from the online measures. “Often,” “at least sometimes,” and “prefer” describe different questions. A person can prefer television while also getting news from search or social media, and the supplied statistics do not indicate that the channels are mutually exclusive.
The overall picture is therefore not a simple replacement of broadcast and print by digital media. It is a layered system: digital devices reach 86% of U.S. adults at least sometimes, television reaches 64%, and radio and print continue to appear in both use and preference measures. The data provide channel-level shares, not a single ranking of the quality or reliability of each format.
How many news sources UK adults use
Ofcom News Consumption in the UK 2024 supporting data reports that UK adults use an average of 6.9 individual news sources across all platforms. The platform-specific figures show how that total is distributed across several types of source.
UK adults used an average of 4.2 individual online news sources in 2024, up from 3.8 in 2023. They used an average of 2.5 individual social media news sources in 2024, up from 2.3 in 2023. These are the two supplied categories with increases across the stated year-over-year comparisons.
Podcast news sources averaged 2.2 per UK adult in 2024, down from 2.3 in 2023. Search engine or news aggregator sources averaged 1.2 in 2024. Other websites or apps averaged 3.1 individual news sources.
| UK news-source measure | 2024 average | Comparison shown in source |
|---|---|---|
| Individual sources across all platforms | 6.9 | 2024 figure |
| Individual online news sources | 4.2 | 3.8 in 2023 |
| Individual social media news sources | 2.5 | 2.3 in 2023 |
| Individual podcast news sources | 2.2 | 2.3 in 2023 |
| Search engine or news aggregator sources | 1.2 | 2024 figure |
| Other websites or apps | 3.1 | 2024 figure |
The UK figures are averages of individual sources, not percentages of adults. They should not be read as the share of people using a channel. They also should not be added into a new total, because the categories describe source types and may reflect overlapping behavior.
For a student following national, local, or campus-related developments, the key implication is the breadth of the measured news routine: 6.9 individual sources across all platforms on average. The Ofcom data do not identify which sources a specific person used, and they do not show whether every source was used with the same frequency.
Radio news use in the UK
Ofcom News Consumption in the UK 2024 supporting data also reports source patterns among UK adults using radio for news. Sixty-eight percent of UK adults using radio for news get news from any BBC Radio station in 2024. Sixty-one percent get news from UK-wide BBC Radio, while 62% get news from commercial radio.
The figures overlap: a radio-news user can listen to both BBC and commercial radio. Ofcom reports that 33% of UK adults using radio for news get news from both BBC and commercial radio in 2024. That overlap is important because the three station-group percentages are not mutually exclusive categories.
The BBC figures also distinguish between any BBC Radio station and UK-wide BBC Radio. The 68% measure covers any BBC Radio station, while the 61% measure covers UK-wide BBC Radio. The supplied data do not provide a separate percentage here for local BBC Radio, so no additional breakdown can be inferred.
Across the U.S. and UK measures, news consumption combines broad digital reach with continuing broadcast use. U.S. adults report access through devices, websites, apps, search, social media, audio, email, television, radio, and print. UK adults report using multiple individual sources, with both online and social-source averages higher in 2024 than in 2023 and podcast-source averages slightly lower.