Young switch off BBC to get their news fix from Tiktok

TEENAGERS are more likely to get their news from Instagram and Tiktok than BBC bulletins, as younger viewers desert the broadcaster’s television news programmes.

An Ofcom report found that BBC One and BBC Two, until last year the most watched news source among 12 to 15-year-olds, have fallen to fifth place.

Instagram is now the most used source for 29 per cent of teenagers, closely followed by Tiktok and Youtube on 28 per cent. Youtube’s share is down on the previous year, but the Tiktok figure is up by 6 per cent.

ITV is the fourth most popular source on 25 per cent, up slightly on the previous year. But BBC One and BBC Two have fallen from 35 per cent in 2021 to 24 per cent this year. Five years ago, the BBC figure was 45 per cent.

Teenagers prefer to get their news from social media, despite considering it to be far less trustworthy and accurate than traditional media. Four out of five 12 to 15-year-olds rated the BBC as trustworthy, significantly higher than Tiktok (30 per cent), Instagram (41 per cent) and Youtube (51 per cent).

The same proportion – 80 per cent – considered the BBC’S news stories to be accurate, in comparison with 32 per cent for Tiktok, 38 per cent for Instagram and 48 per cent for Youtube.

Yih-choung Teh, Ofcom’s group director for strategy and research, said: “Teenagers today are increasingly unlikely to pick up a newspaper or tune in to TV news, instead preferring to keep up to date by scrolling through their social feeds… they rate these services more highly for serving up a range of opinions on the day’s topical stories.”

Tiktok experienced the largest increase in use of any news source in the past two years: from 800,000 adults in 2020 to 3.9million this year. The rise is driven primarily by younger people, with half of its news users aged 16 to 24.

The Ofcom report said that the BBC remained the most used news source for 12 to 15-year-olds when radio and its website were taken into consideration, and pointed out that the BBC has its own Tiktok and Instagram accounts, with 182,000 followers and 22.3 million followers respectively.

A BBC spokesman said: “According to this Ofcom research, the BBC is the most used news source for 12 to 15-yearolds – via TV, radio and online – and… on social media platforms such as our hugely popular Instagram account.”