A majority of US adults now say social media is an important way for them to keep up with the news, according to a Pew Research Center short read published on 23 October 2026. This article sets out what the survey found, how the picture differs by age, and where the people who post news online fit in. It describes the United States; it does not show how audiences in the UK or EU behave.
What did Pew find in 2026?
Pew, a US research organisation, surveyed 3,488 US adults from 22 to 28 June 2026 using its American Trends Panel, as part of the Pew-Knight Initiative. According to the short read, 58% of US adults say social media is an important way for them to keep up with the news.
The answers split into three groups:
| Answer (US adults, June 2026) | Share |
|---|---|
| Social media is the most important way to keep up | 13% |
| Important, but not the most important | 45% |
| Not an important way | 42% |
The three figures add up to 100%. The 13% and 45% together make the 58% headline. These are survey estimates, so small differences should not be over-read.
How much has it changed since 2022?
Pew compares the result with 2022. In that year, according to the same short read, 43% said social media was an important way to keep up with the news, including 5% who said it was the most important way. (The chart in the source shows slightly different component figures for 2022, which sum to 44%; the text figure of 43% is used here.)
Illustrative arithmetic from those published figures:
- Overall importance: 58% minus 43% is 15 percentage points higher.
- “Most important” answers: 13% minus 5% is 8 percentage points higher, or 2.6 times the earlier share (13 ÷ 5 = 2.6).
- Those who say it is not important: 42% now, down from 56% in the earlier chart.
- Of the 58% who call social media important, 13 points say it is the most important, roughly 22% (13 ÷ 58 = 0.224).
That last point is worth noting. For most people who value social media for news, it appears to sit alongside other sources rather than replace them, although the survey question does not tell us which other sources they use.
Who relies on social media for news most?
Age is the sharpest divide. According to Pew’s 2026 short read:
| Age group | Social media is important for news | Most important way |
|---|---|---|
| 18 to 29 | 76% | 22% |
| 30 to 49 | 64% | 13% |
| 50 to 64 | 51% | 9% |
| 65 and over | 41% | 8% |
The gap between the youngest and oldest groups is 35 percentage points (76% minus 41%). Pew states that the youngest adults are the most likely to value social media as a news source, and that young adults are more likely than older adults to trust information there. About half of adults under 30 report at least some trust in information from social media sites.
Even among the 65-and-over group, 41% say social media is important, so the shift is not confined to the young. It is, however, strongest among them, which matters for anyone producing content aimed at younger audiences.
Pew’s short read names TikTok and Instagram as destinations that have drawn more Americans in recent years, but it gives no platform-by-platform figures for this question. It would therefore be a mistake to rank platforms from this release alone. The data describes social media as a category, not Facebook, YouTube, X or any single app.
Where do news influencers fit in?
The short read does not mention news influencers, so it cannot be used to say how much of the 58% comes from them. Pew has measured that group separately. Its News Influencers Fact Sheet, dated 4 November 2025 and based on a survey conducted from 18 to 24 August 2025, reports that 21% of US adults regularly get news from news influencers. By age, the fact sheet gives:
- 38% of adults aged 18 to 29
- 23% of those aged 30 to 49
- 16% of those aged 50 to 64
- 8% of those aged 65 and over
The age pattern mirrors the 2026 finding: the younger the audience, the higher the reliance. The two surveys ask different questions, though, with different wording and fieldwork dates, so their figures should not be added together or treated as parts of one total. Our earlier piece on who news influencers are and who follows them covers Pew’s definition and profile of this group in more detail.
Why do people say they follow news influencers?
Among people who regularly get news from news influencers, the fact sheet lists these reasons:
- Help understanding current events and civic issues: 54%
- Quick reporting on breaking news: 54%
- A feeling of authenticity: 49%
- Different information from other sources: 46%
These are reasons people give, not measures of accuracy. The fact sheet does not test whether the information is correct, so it cannot show whether audiences are well or poorly served.
Does trust mean the information is reliable?
The two ideas are separate. The 2026 short read reports that many younger adults say they trust information from social media, but trust is a perception. A person can trust a source that is wrong, and distrust one that is right. Studies of reliability need a different method, such as checking posts against facts.
For creators, the gap between trust and accuracy is the practical issue. UNESCO’s survey findings on why creators skip fact-checking show where verification tends to fall short. For audiences, the skills involved are often grouped under media literacy; Ofcom’s description is covered in our explainer on what media literacy is.
Is this a story about people or about algorithms?
Both play a part, and this survey only measures the first. It asks Americans how they see social media, not how their feeds are assembled. Which posts reach someone depends on recommendation systems, which our guide to how recommendation algorithms decide what you see explains in plain terms.
That is the publication’s own reading rather than Pew’s: when a growing share of people treat social feeds as a news source, the people posting on them, from individual creators to organisations, carry a growing share of the public conversation, whether or not they set out to do so.
What the numbers can and cannot tell readers
Several limits apply to any use of this data:
- Country. The survey covers US adults. Rules, platforms and audience habits in the UK and EU differ, and no figure here should be assumed to apply there.
- Wording. “An important way to keep up with the news” is a self-assessment. It does not measure how often someone reads news on social media, or what they read.
- Sample error. Survey results carry margins of error, so a one- or two-point change between groups or years is not necessarily real.
- Comparisons. The source’s 2022 chart and text differ by a point, so the exact size of the rise is approximate.
- Causes. The survey describes attitudes; it does not explain why they changed.
Reading the shift without overstating it
Pew’s June 2026 survey shows a clear direction: 58% of US adults now call social media an important way to keep up with the news, up from 43% in 2022, with the strongest reliance among adults under 30. What it does not show is which accounts people follow, how accurate those accounts are, or how the picture looks outside the US. Treated as a snapshot of American attitudes, it is a useful reference. Treated as a verdict on creators or platforms, it would go beyond what the data supports.
This article is general information based on published US research as of 7 November 2026, not advice. Survey findings are estimates, and platform practices and audience behaviour change over time.
Sources: Pew Research Center (Growing Share of Americans Say Social Media Is an Important News Source for Them); Pew Research Center (News Influencers Fact Sheet)
