Social media platforms, AI summaries, how we consume news in 2025
2 July 2025
Running since 2015, the Digital News Report, published annually by the University of Canberra, surveyed nearly one-hundred-thousand people globally, including about two-thousand Australians.
The key findings of the 2025 report are probably of no surprise to many of us. About twenty-five percent of people now source their news from social media platforms. Instagram and TikTok are the go-to platforms for news seekers aged eighteen to twenty-four.
AI is also making in-roads into the way people consume news, with nearly thirty-percent saying they like the idea of AI prepared news summaries.
When it comes to misinformation, seventy-five percent of Australians — the highest number in the world — expressed concerned about misinformation. Many are sceptical of influencers as a result.
Facebook and TikTok were identified as the biggest purveyors of misinformation. Encouragingly though, about forty-percent of people will turn to a “trusted news brand” should they be suspicious as to the veracity of a news story.
Here’s something else that’s interesting. Only about a quarter of Australians say they have received news literacy education. That is, being informed in how to use and understand news.
I have to say, it’s the first time I’ve heard the term. Is news literacy taught at school? Maybe I was absent the day that class was held.
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