Google · Nation Thailand
Social media overtakes news websites as AI reshapes global media
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◌ Single Source
The Digital News Report 2026, which surveyed news consumers in 48 countries, found that 54% of respondents used social media and video platforms for news, compared with 51% who accessed news through the websites and apps of news organisations.
Key facts
- The share of people using AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google Gemini for news rose from 7% in 2025 to 10% in 2026.
- The report cited data from analytics company Chartbeat, which found that traffic from Google Search to more than 2,500 news websites worldwide fell by 33% between November 2024 and November 2025
- Only 37% of respondents reported trusting news most of the time, down from 40% three years earlier and the lowest level since the survey began in 2015.
- This marks the first time that external platforms have become more popular than digital channels directly owned by news outlets.
- Among those under 35, 16% reported using AI chatbots to follow the news.
- Some 42% of users identified this as a key benefit of using AI to follow news.
Summary
This marks the first time that external platforms have become more popular than digital channels directly owned by news outlets.
The trend follows several years of declining news use through television, websites and news apps. The report found that use of news websites and apps has fallen by 12 percentage points since 2020, while television news consumption has dropped by 13 percentage points over the same period.