KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, short-form videos and independent content creators are rapidly changing the way people consume news around the world, posing new challenges for traditional media organizations struggling to retain their audiences, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026.
The latest report, based on nearly 100,000 interviews with online news consumers across 48 markets, found that audiences are increasingly turning to AI-powered tools, video platforms and personality-driven news content, accelerating the shift away from traditional news publishers.
The magazine reported that one of the most important developments in digital news consumption is the increasing use of AI chatbots, with users beginning to rely on conversational AI to summarize, explain, and personalize news content instead of visiting news websites directly.
“The use of AI chatbots in news is growing rapidly, but not as rapidly as the use of AI for other purposes. 10 percent of people use AI chatbots in news, up from 7 percent last year.
According to a report released this week by the Reuters Institute, “Usage is primarily driven by those most interested in news and is concentrated among younger audiences (16% of people under 35 report using AI chatbots for news).”
The study also found that news video viewing continues to increase, especially among younger viewers, as social media platforms become the primary gateway for news consumption.
Parallel to this trend, independent news creators and influencers are growing in influence, engaging audiences through personality-driven content that many perceive to be more relatable and authentic than institutional journalism.
“About a quarter (27 percent) of respondents around the world get some news from individual creators and influencers who specialize in news, and almost half (46 percent) get some news from creators of all types.
“Respondents said creators are more interesting, easier to understand, and more empathetic than traditional news organizations. On average, people believe creators are less trustworthy and less unbiased compared to other attributes such as trustworthiness and relevancy.”
Since the pandemic, the increased use of third-party platforms has focused on video-driven rather than text-based platforms, the company noted.
The first wave of social media growth hit newspaper companies the hardest. Currently, the second wave is impacting news organizations’ interest in television and video.
While Facebook remains the largest overall platform for news consumption, TikTok and Instagram, along with YouTube, are driving many of the changes and are recognized as the fastest-growing video-driven networks, he said.
The report also found that interest in news is declining, as is trust in it.
Since 2021, the proportion of people who say they are “very” or “extremely” interested in news has fallen by an average of 13% across the markets surveyed, while a quarter now say they are casual or passive news users, typically consume news only once a week, and have little or no interest in news, up from 16% in 2021.
“Trust in news has declined in 29 of our 48 markets this year, resulting in an overall decline to the lowest level (37%) we have recorded since we began measuring trust in 2015.
“This decline in global trust reflects, in part, broader anxieties beyond the news industry. Trust in institutions and leaders has declined widely, and journalism is also often under direct attack from prominent politicians,” the report added.
He argued that this decline in trust is related to changes in the composition of news consumption.
Social media and video networks have long been less trusted than traditional news media. As such, overall trust tends to decline as more people tend to consume social media and video networks (and AI chatbots) for news at the expense of traditional sources.
“While trust in news overall is likely to decline further in the future, trust in many established news providers appears to be bucking this trend.
Concerns about fake news also rose by an average of 4% to 62%, with 11 markets seeing increases of more than 5%.
The findings also suggest that traditional news organizations face increasing pressure to retain their audiences.
“2026 marks an important milestone. For the first time, the use of social media and video networks has surpassed other news sources as the most widely used news source in the world (54% of total viewers),” the report said.
Usage of TV news and news organizations’ websites and apps has decreased by 13% and 12%, respectively, since 2020.
“The relative decline of television as a news source is well known across the industry. What is perhaps less well known is that people’s use of news websites and apps has declined at a similar rate in recent years,” the report said.
A continued shift away from traditional news sources could leave news organizations competing for a share of attention in places where audience intent and loyalty are lowest, and where prospects for monetization are most difficult.
He added that many publishers are starting to reflect on what their social media strategies are actually delivering, while also focusing on how to maximize the engagement and value of the smaller but more loyal audiences that continue to read, watch and listen to their own news outlets. — Bernama
