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A sea change in how Americans access and consume political news is increasingly reflecting the partisan divide found in the overall political landscape, according to a new study from Global Strategy Group.
According to “Media Consumption Trends 2025: Engaging Passive News Consumers,” much of that change has its roots in the platforms US audiences use to get their news. The rising importance of streaming, social media and podcasts, plus the concurrent slide in the viewership of cable and satellite TV, is alleged to have created a large group of more passive, less engaged news consumers, allowing more active audiences at the ends of the spectrum to have greater impact.
More than three-quarters (78 percent) of respondents between 18 and 29 years of age said that they get at least some of their news from social media, as opposed to 46 percent who said television is among their news sources.
However, the closer you get to the Baby Boomer generation, the more powerful television remains, with 51 percent (30-49), 72 percent (49-64) and 86 percent (65+) saying that they at least partially depend on television for news coverage.
More than one in five respondents (21 percent) are sometimes leaving journalists out of the news equation, going to social media creators for news content. That number rises to 37 percent for 18-29-year-olds.
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The numbers on some of the top platforms when it comes to news consumption has taken a sharp upward turn in recent years. In 2021, for example, 28 percent of respondents who are Instagram users said they regularly got news from the platform. By 2024, that number was up to 40 percent. TikTok has seen an even bigger jump, going from 22 percent to 52 percent.
The shift from traditional media to social media has brought along with it the decline of news as a destination for audiences. For the 18-29 cohort, only 25 percent say they actually seek out news content, with 73 percent saying they “mostly get news because I happen to come across it.”
Once again, older audiences have been somewhat slower to make that transition—34 percent vs. 64 percent for those 30-49, 48 percent vs. 51 percent for those 50-64, and the over-65ers remain more likely to seek out news, at 60 percent vs. 39 percent.
The study finds that those who seek out news are more likely to have strong political opinions than those who are more casual news consumers. For “strong democrats,” 64 percent say they seek out news, while just 36 percent say they let the news come to them. “MAGA republicans” show a similar split, with 58 percent being active news pursuers and 42 percent taking a more laissez-fair approach.
“Weak/lean democrats” (48 percent vs 52 percent) and “Non-MAGA republicans” (47 percent vs. 53 percent) are less like to be seeking out news sources.
One place where the study shows a pronounced divide between right-wing and left-wing news consumers is in the content produced by independent creators. On all the platforms the study looked at, right-wing content significantly outperformed left-wing programming, with podcasts like those of Joe Rogan, Russell Brand and Ben Shapiro topping their blue-leaning competitors.
Trust in the media is also in rather sad shape across the board, with only “strong democrats” showing a positive net trust score as regards the media (+22). Even “weak/lead democrats” show a negative net trust score (-15), and for “MAGA republicans” that score plummets to -50.
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