Social media has officially overtaken traditional news websites as Generation Z's primary source of news, according to a new Reuters Institute study, underscoring a global shift that is already reshaping Bangladesh's media landscape.
The report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford has found that young people aged 18-24 are increasingly turning to social media, video platforms and individual creators for news instead of visiting news websites or watching television, signaling one of the biggest transformations in journalism over the past decade.
The findings closely mirror trends already emerging in Bangladesh.
Earlier this year, a nationwide survey by the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) found that 74% of young people interviewed in person and 84% of online respondents relied on social media for current affairs, with Facebook remaining the dominant platform, followed by YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp and TikTok.
Taken together, the two studies suggest that Bangladesh's youth are part of a global shift that is fundamentally changing how journalism is produced, distributed, and consumed.
However, the Reuters Institute report is not a survey of Bangladesh. It is a synthesis of more than a decade of Reuters Institute research, drawing primarily on its Digital News Report datasets.
The cross-sectional findings are based on 48 markets included in the 2025 Digital News Report, while long-term trend comparisons use the same nine countries (UK, US, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Japan and Brazil) to ensure consistency over time.
According to the report, the defining change of the past decade is not the decline of newspapers or television, which had largely already taken place, but the shift from publisher-owned news websites to social media platforms.
In 2015, 36% of young adults said news websites or publisher apps were their main source of news, while 21% relied primarily on social media, but by 2025, those figures had flipped.
Nearly four in ten young adults now identify social media as their primary news source, compared with just 24% who mainly use news websites or apps.
The report says young audiences have also migrated from Facebook towards more visual platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
The Reuters findings are strikingly similar to those observed by Bangladeshi researchers.
The BYLC Youth Matters Survey, conducted among 3,238 young people aged 16-35 across the country, found that social media has become the principal gateway to news for most respondents.
Although many participants continued to trust mainstream newspapers and television, their dependence on social media for current affairs was steadily increasing.
More than 70% identified Facebook as their preferred platform, followed by YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X.
Presenting the findings earlier this year, Md Abul Khayer Shajib, manager of research, monitoring and evaluation at BYLC, said the survey reflected changing information habits among young Bangladeshis as digital platforms increasingly shape how they engage with public affairs.
The Reuters Institute says young people today rarely begin their news journey by typing a news organization's address into a browser.
Instead, news is increasingly encountered while scrolling social media feeds or watching short-form videos.
Only 14% of young adults now access news primarily by going directly to a publisher's website or app, while social media has become the dominant entry point.
Researchers warn that this weakens audiences' direct relationships with news brands and leaves publishers increasingly dependent on technology companies and recommendation algorithms.
For media organizations, the challenge is no longer simply reaching younger audiences but persuading them to return directly rather than consuming journalism as just another item in an endless social media feed.
Perhaps the report's most striking finding is the growing influence of individual creators.
Among people aged 18-24, 51% say they pay more attention to news creators on social and video platforms than to traditional news organizations, which attract the primary attention of 39% of respondents.
Researchers say personality-driven content, authenticity and conversational storytelling increasingly resonate with younger audiences.
The report challenges the idea that young people have simply lost interest in current affairs.
Instead, it argues they often define "news" more broadly than older generations do, seeking information that is directly relevant to their lives, including mental health, science, technology, and practical, everyday issues alongside politics.
Even so, engagement with traditional news has declined.
Only 64% of people aged 18-24 now say they consume news daily, compared with 87% of those aged 55 and above.
Just over one-third describe themselves as highly interested in news.
Around one-third also believe people their age are not sufficiently represented in news coverage and feel the media often portrays younger generations unfairly.
The report also highlights a growing role for artificial intelligence.
Around 15% of young adults now use AI tools or chatbots each week to access or better understand news, compared with just 3% of people aged 55 and above.
Many use AI to simplify complex stories rather than replace journalism altogether.
The combined findings raise difficult questions for Bangladesh's news industry, where publishers are already struggling to convert social media audiences into loyal readers while competing with creators and platform algorithms.
As audiences increasingly consume journalism through Facebook, TikTok, YouTube Shorts,, and Instagram Reels, traditional publishers face growing difficulty in building reader bases and sustainable digital business models.
The Reuters Institute concludes that journalism's future depends not simply on meeting young audiences where they already spend their time online, but on producing content they consider relevant, engaging and worth returning to.
