Online news is now a routine part of how people encounter information. The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet reports that 86% of U.S. adults at least sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer, or tablet, while 56% often do so from digital devices. The same source shows that websites, apps, search, social media, podcasts, newsletters, and AI chatbots all occupy distinct places in the news landscape. Ofcom’s News Consumption in the UK 2024 provides a separate view of how UK adults use search engines, aggregators, broadcasters, and social platforms for news.
Online news statistics at a glance
- Digital devices and online sources
- Preferred ways to get news
- Age and education differences
- Social platforms as news sources
- Local news and digital access
- UK search, aggregators, and news brands
The figures below measure different behaviors, so “at least sometimes,” “often,” “prefer,” and “regularly” should not be treated as interchangeable. Geography also matters: the Pew figures describe U.S. adults unless otherwise stated, while the Ofcom figures describe UK adults.
Digital devices and online sources
Digital devices are the broadest gateway to online news in the U.S. data. According to the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 86% of U.S. adults at least sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer, or tablet. A smaller but still substantial 56% often get news from digital devices. These measures indicate both broad reach and a more frequent digital-news habit, without implying that every digital-device news encounter comes from a news publisher.
More specific online pathways also reach large shares of adults:
- 65% at least sometimes get news from news websites or apps.
- 63% at least sometimes get news from search.
- 53% at least sometimes get news from social media.
- 32% at least sometimes get news from podcasts.
- 30% at least sometimes get news from email newsletters.
- 9% at least sometimes get news from AI chatbots.
These figures come from the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet. They describe the share of adults who use each route at least sometimes, not the amount of time spent there or the number of articles read. A student checking a campus update through search, a commuter opening a newsletter, and a viewer discovering a story through social media can all be counted within this broader online-news picture.
Traditional channels remain part of the same information environment. The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet reports that 64% of U.S. adults at least sometimes get news from television. For the “often” measure, 32% often get news from television, 11% often get news from radio, and 7% often get news from printed newspapers or magazines. Online use is therefore widespread, but it exists alongside broadcast and print habits rather than replacing every other source.
Preferred ways to get news
Frequency of use and stated preference tell different stories. The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet reports that 21% of U.S. adults prefer news websites or apps. Social media is the preferred route for 14%, while 10% prefer search. Podcasts are preferred by 6%, and email newsletters by 3%.
Television remains the leading preference in this set of measures: 34% of U.S. adults prefer television for getting news. Radio is preferred by 5%, and printed newspapers or magazines are also preferred by 5%, according to the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet.
| Preferred news route | Share of U.S. adults |
|---|---|
| Television | 34% |
| News websites or apps | 21% |
| Social media | 14% |
| Search | 10% |
| Podcasts | 6% |
| Radio | 5% |
| Printed newspapers or magazines | 5% |
| Email newsletters | 3% |
The comparison shows why reach and preference should be reported separately. News websites or apps reach 65% of U.S. adults at least sometimes, yet 21% name them as their preferred route. Search reaches 63% at least sometimes, while 10% prefer it. Social media reaches 53% at least sometimes, while 14% prefer it. Each metric answers a different question about the online news experience.
Age and education differences
Age is associated with meaningful differences in digital news use. The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet reports that 93% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 at least sometimes get news from digital devices. Among adults ages 65 and older, the corresponding figure is 71%.
The age pattern is also visible in social media and search. Among U.S. adults ages 18 to 29, 76% at least sometimes get news from social media, compared with 28% of adults ages 65 and older. For search, the figures are 69% for adults ages 18 to 29 and 50% for adults ages 65 and older. These are usage measures from the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, not claims that younger or older adults use only one news channel.
Education is another reported dividing line. The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet says that 75% of U.S. adults with a college degree or more at least sometimes get news from news websites or apps. The same source reports that 38% of U.S. adults with a college degree or more at least sometimes get news from podcasts.
The dataset also identifies differences among racial and ethnic groups for selected online formats. According to the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet, 40% of Black U.S. adults at least sometimes get news from email newsletters. Among Asian U.S. adults, 19% at least sometimes get news from AI chatbots. These figures concern specific formats and should not be generalized to all online news behavior.
Social platforms as news sources
Platform-level measures add detail to the broader social-media figure. The Pew Social Media and News report says that 30% of Facebook users regularly get news there, 16% of Instagram users regularly get news there, and 14% of TikTok users regularly get news there. The same report lists 12% of X users as regularly getting news there in one reported measure.
The supplied Pew Social Media and News figures also report another set of platform-specific percentages: 50% of X users, 40% of TikTok users, 37% of Facebook users, and 30% of Instagram users regularly get news there. Because the source labels contain two different sets of values for the same “regularly get news” wording, they should be read as separate reported measures rather than combined or averaged. The figures are retained here with that limitation made explicit; the available source label does not provide additional context for reconciling them.
X users also describe news as a reason for using the platform. According to the Pew Social Media and News report, 65% of X users say keeping up with news is a reason they use X, and 25% say it is a major reason. These are motivation measures, distinct from the reported measures of regularly getting news there.
Local news and digital access
Online news is important not only for national stories but also for local information. The Pew Local News report says that 52% of U.S. adults at least sometimes get local news from online forums such as Facebook groups or Nextdoor. Another 33% say they at least sometimes get local news from online-only sources.
Digital pathways also connect audiences to organizations that began in other formats. Among people who get local news from daily newspapers, 66% do so digitally through websites, apps, email, or social posts, according to the Pew Local News report. Among people who get local news from local TV stations, 37% do so through digital pathways.
Preference for digital local news is substantial. The Pew Local News Fact Sheet reports that 26% of U.S. adults prefer a news website or app for local news and information. Another 23% prefer a social media site for local news and information.
The local-news figures also include financial measures. According to the Pew Local News report, 39% of U.S. adults say their local news outlets are not doing well financially. At the same time, 12% say they paid or gave money to a local news source in the past year. The figures describe public perceptions and reported support; they do not establish the financial condition of any particular outlet.
UK search, aggregators, and news brands
Ofcom’s News Consumption in the UK 2024 reports that 71% of UK adults use search engines or news aggregators for news nowadays. Within that overall measure, 48% use a search engine for news nowadays and 43% use intermediaries or aggregators. These figures show the importance of discovery and distribution pathways in the UK, but they are not directly comparable with every U.S. measure because the wording and geography differ.
Across platforms, 68% of UK adults use the BBC for news nowadays, according to Ofcom. The corresponding figures are 40% for Meta platforms, 38% for ITV, 22% for Google, and 22% for Sky.
Ofcom also reports intermediary-level use among UK adults: 30% use Facebook for news nowadays as an intermediary, 19% use YouTube, 18% use Instagram, and 15% use X. These figures identify the platform or service used as a route to news; they do not say that the platform itself produced every news item encountered.
Taken together, the U.S. and UK statistics describe an online news environment built from several layers: digital devices, publisher websites and apps, search, aggregators, social platforms, newsletters, podcasts, and newer conversational tools. For readers navigating campus and student life, the most relevant distinction is often not whether news is “online,” but which pathway delivered it and what the underlying measure actually counts.