The Digital News Report 2026 shows audiences drifting further from traditional news routes, even as trust remains uneven across African markets
How did you last get the news? If it came through a clip on TikTok, a YouTube explainer, a WhatsApp forward, a Facebook post, an influencer’s commentary or a chatbot summary, you are part of a much larger shift in how news now travels.
The Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026 describes this as the growing “platformisation” of news, a steady drift away from direct routes such as television, newspapers and news websites and towards social media, video networks and, increasingly, AI chatbots.
The implications for newsrooms are significant. People are still interested in news, but the paths between journalism and audiences are less direct, more fragmented and more dependent on third-party platforms.
Globally, social media and video networks are now the most widely used way to access online news, used by 54% of respondents across the 48 markets covered in the report. That puts them ahead of news organisations’ own websites and apps, used by 51%. If AI chatbots are added to the mix, third-party routes account for 56% of weekly news access. Among four African markets surveyed, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa, half of the people surveyed (54%) and Asia (47%) consume news videos on YouTube, compared to just a quarter (24%) in Europe. Code for Africa funded research for Africa in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco. The Africa section of the Digital News Report 2026 was supported by Code for Africa.
In 45 of the 48 markets surveyed, more people now watch online news video than broadcast television news. Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands are the only three countries where TV still leads or is on par with watching news online.
Africa is near the front of this shift, with over half of the audiences surveyed in the region (54%) consuming news videos on YouTube each week, compared with 47% in Asia and 24% in Europe. African audiences also show high levels of video news consumption across other social and video platforms.
But the boom is not happening on publishers’ own turf. While appetite for video is rising, video consumption on news organisations’ own websites and apps has fallen by five percentage points. That doesn’t mean audiences are abandoning television; more than a quarter (27%) say they now watch on-demand news via apps like YouTube on their smart TVs.
The fact that demand is growing, while much of the data and advertising value sits with the platforms that distribute news video, presents a dilemma for traditional media.
Video networks have been on the horizon for a while now, but their effect on the media landscape is becoming clearer. The rise of news creators is also changing the news diet. Around 27% of respondents globally say they get some news from individual creators or influencers who focus on news. If creators who are not primarily news-focused but sometimes discuss current affairs are included, the figure rises to 46%.
Audiences see creators as more entertaining, easier to understand and more relatable than traditional news outlets. The report is, however, careful to say that creators should be seen more as playing a complementary role rather than acting as substitutes: most people who get news from creators also consume traditional media.
Kenya stands out in terms of people who say that all or most of their news needs are met by creators (33%). However, the proportion who rely only on creators is much smaller, around 7% in Kenya and 3% in the United States. A young population is a factor, but other factors are at play, including “polarised politics, the size of the market, and the extent to which traditional media are seen to represent – or not represent – different audience interests.”
AI chatbots are the newest part of this wider platform shift. Although the share is still low, more users are starting to experiment with AI chatbots as a new way to access news. Globally, 10% of people use AI chatbots for news, up from 7% from last year. If you add AI chatbots to the mix, the share of people using third-party platforms globally, including using social media and video networks for news, adds up to 56%. As the report puts it, “Some of this year’s report makes for unsettling reading, but it is an especially unsettled time both for the news media sector and for the world at large.”
As with other new technologies, use of AI chatbots is likely concentrated among more engaged users, the report suggests, “meaning initial effects are likely to be felt most among those already closely connected to news, as well as among younger people.”
Many are using AI chatbots to interrogate, summarise, and evaluate information, which suggests an opportunity for publishers to enhance their journalism in ways that are “distinctive and genuinely valuable to audiences.”
If AI tools can summarise, explain and repackage journalism, how will the original producers of that journalism be recognised, credited and compensated? The report does not offer a simple answer, but it makes clear that AI is part of the same structural challenge created by search, social media and video platforms: journalism remains valuable, but the routes through which audiences encounter it are increasingly controlled by others.
Trust is the darker thread running through the report.
Worryingly, trust in the news has fallen to 37% globally, the lowest since the Reuters Institute began tracking this measure in 2015. Trust fell in 29 of the 48 markets surveyed. Concern about fake news online has risen to 62%.
The African picture is more layered. Kenya and Nigeria both record high trust in news, at 68%, placing them well above the global average. Nigeria is among the highest-trust markets in the report. Kenya’s trust remains strong, although the country page notes that trust is often selective and anchored more in individual sources than in institutions.
The story is slightly different in South Africa, where trust in news stands at 50%, still above the global average but down from a 2022 high of 61%. The report points to a media environment where legacy newsrooms are shrinking, creators are gaining influence and foreign state-linked activity has contributed to pressure on the information ecosystem.
Morocco sits lower, at 28%, reflecting a more sceptical public in a tightly controlled information environment. Audiences there may be active in consuming, sharing and commenting on news, but trust in the wider information system remains weak.
This suggests that there is no single story about “African audiences”. In some markets, including Kenya and Nigeria, high concern about misinformation may be making familiar brands and trusted sources more important. In others, like Morocco, political pressure and scepticism weigh heavily on trust.
Trust in the news on social media and AI chatbot answers is well below trust in news overall, but convenience keeps pulling audiences back. This is the central dilemma for journalism. News organisations need to be in places where audiences are, but those places often have shaky foundations for trust, loyalty and revenue.
For African newsrooms, the challenge is not simply to chase platforms, flood feeds with more video or bolt AI into existing workflows. It is to build journalism that is distinct enough to be sought out, and clear enough to be understood.
Kiprotich Koros is a copy editor at Code for Africa
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