Fewer Britons get news from social media as trust falls

FEWER Britons are consuming news on social media than a year ago amid falling trust levels, the media regulator says.

Ofcom found the proportion using these services to access the latest stories have dropped to 2018 levels.

The report revealed more than one in four people use DMGT – which owns the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, MailOnline and Metro – to follow the news. This was only beaten by the BBC, ITN and Sky.

The Daily Mail was the most used daily print title followed by Metro then the Sun, the study showed.

Ofcom said TV remained the most popular way to get the news for 75 per cent of consumers.

But the proportion using social media to do so fell from 49 per cent in 2019 to 45 per cent this year.

Since last year trust in these services for news has dropped from 38 per cent to 35 per cent. Confidence in impartiality fell from 37 per cent to 34 per cent and in accuracy from 39 per cent to 36 per cent.

Those who use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are also now less likely to share or retweet items.

When asked about specific brands however, Facebook only dropped slightly from 35 to 34 per cent for adults using it for news. Use of Twitter and Instagram went up slightly on the year. Amid ongoing concerns about the spread of misinformation, almost nine in ten older children said they were aware of ‘fake news’. But more than half who use social media said they found it difficult to tell whether or not stories were accurate.

While 75 per cent of people used TV for news, a further 65 per cent used the internet to do so and 42 per cent via radio.

When traditional print was combined with newspaper websites and apps, overall use hit 47 per cent.

The report said the average adult watched 98 hours of news last year. For the over-65s, it was 204 hours.

The research did not cover news consumption during the lockdown.

While BBC1 was still the most popular place to watch the headlines, with 56 per cent using it, this had fallen from 62 per cent in 2018.

BBC1 was still regarded as the ‘most important’ news source but this had fallen from 2018, while the use of the BBC website and app for news had dropped from last year.

The report also found about 6 per cent of people get news from podcasts. Of these, nearly a third used YouTube and nearly a quarter headed to BBC Sounds and Spotify.