Forget Murdoch: Most Under 40s Now Get their News from Social Media Instead

As Rupert Murdoch stands down, new polling shows that the vast majority of young people now get their news from TikTok and other social media platforms

The influence of media moguls like 92-year-old Rupert Murdoch is in decline as young people look for their news elsewhere

In this week’s Bienkov Briefing:

• NEW POLLING SHOWS DECLINE OF MAINSTREAM NEWS OUTLETS

• PUBLIC RESPONSE TO RUSSELL BRAND ALLEGATIONS HIGHLIGHTS NEW POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS

• VOTERS WANT SUNAK TO DO MORE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

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The news that the 92-year-old head of News Corp and Fox has stood down has led to much analysis about what this means for the future of international news media.

While Rupert Murdoch’s replacement could turn out to be significant in the short term, the reality is that the influence of the newspaper and broadcast news empire he first began accumulating in the 1950s has been steadily on the decline for some years now.

Indeed as new polling by We Think for Byline Times shows, for most voters under the age of 40, newspapers and broadcast news outlets are no longer their main source of news.

In fact, according to our poll 52% of British voters under 40 say that social media is now their main source of information about current events, with 25% specifically listing TikTok as their main source of news.

This percentage rises significantly among the youngest voters. with 71% of 18-24 year-olds saying they get most of their news from social media platforms, including nearly half (47%) saying they mostly get it from TikTok.

Broadcast news still remains the most popular source of information among voters overall, with 41% saying this is their main source of information about current events. However, this relies heavily on an ageing audience. 

So while 71% of over 75s say they get most of their news from TV and radio, this plummets to just 19% among under 40s and just 10% among 18-24 year olds.