@zexsypmp23 not just for games anymore, too good to pass up a chance to indoctrinate gullibles and low information
https://inews.co.uk/news/media/tiktok-replacing-facebook-young-people-news-sources-1683273
Young people are turning to TikTok for uplifting stories to avoid a “depressing” news agenda, a new report found.
Audiences are “tuning out” serious stories about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis – and Partygate – after two years of sombre pandemic news.
TikTok has become the fastest-growing network, reaching 40 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds, with 15 per cent using the platform for news, the 2022 Reuters Institute Digital News Report said.
“Social natives”, aged 18-24, have little allegiance with Facebook, with its reputation for spreading “fake news”, and favour visual networks like Instagram and TikTok, where entertainment and social influencers play a bigger role.
A significant proportion of younger people say they avoid news because it can be hard to follow, “suggesting that the news media could do more to simplify language and explain complex stories”, the annual survey of 93,432 people in 46 countries found.
Those younger age groups also hold a stronger preference for journalists being able to “push the boundaries” and express their personal opinions freely on social media.
Emily Maitlis fell foul of the BBC’s Twitter guidelines on impartiality before leaving Newsnight for commercial audio rival Global where she is free to express personal opinions.
Many people of all ages are choosing to limit their exposure to “serious” news.
Almost four in ten (38 per cent) say they often or sometimes avoid the news – up from 29 per cent in 2017. Avoiders have doubled in the UK (46 per cent) over five years.
Trust in news has fallen in almost half the countries in the survey, and risen in just seven, partly reversing the gains made during the pandemic.
The brutal nature of the Ukraine conflict “seems to have contributed to significant increases in selective news avoidance.”
Lead author Nic Newman said: “These findings are particularly challenging for the news industry. Subjects that journalists consider most important, such as political crises, international conflicts and global pandemics, seem to be precisely the ones that are turning some people away.”
The BBC remained the most widely used news source in the UK. But audiences criticised its reporting on a range of divisive issues, from Brexit, immigration and Covid vaccines to culture war topics such as race and gender identity.
Ministers hostile to the BBC are likely to seize on the findings that “wall-to-wall attention” devoted to the Partygate scandal on its news “may have alienated those outside the Westminster bubble.”
