More Americans are getting their local news online, while fewer are turning to television or print, according to the Pew Research Center.

More Americans are getting news on TikTok

In just three years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has more than quadrupled, from 3% in 2020 to 14% in 2023. Many Americans find value in getting news on social media, but concerns about inaccuracy have risen.

• 6 facts about Americans and TikTok

Podcasts as a source of news and information

Roughly half of U.S. adults say they’ve listened to a podcast in the past year, including one-in-five who report listening at least a few times a week. Most podcast listeners say this experience includes hearing news, which they largely expect to be mostly accurate. Large shares of listeners say they turn to podcasts for entertainment, learning, or to have something to listen to while doing something else.

• Essay: An audio tour through America’s top-ranked podcasts 
• A profile of the top-ranked podcasts in the U.S. 

Social media in the news and information environment

In recent years, several new options have emerged in the social media universe, many of which explicitly present themselves as alternatives to more established social media platforms. Free speech ideals and heated political themes prevail on these sites, which draw praise from their users and skepticism from other Americans.

Pew Research Center recently asked U.S. adults about the ways they access local news, as well as their attitudes toward local journalism, finding that:

• A growing share of Americans prefer to get local news online, while fewer get news on TV or in print. Newspapers are no longer primarily consumed as print products—the majority of readers of local daily newspapers now access them digitally.
• The share of U.S. adults who say they are paying close attention to local news has dropped since Pew’s last major survey of attitudes toward local news in 2018, mirroring declining attention to national news.
• Americans still see value in local news and local journalists. A large majority say local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community. Most people also say local journalists are in touch with their communities and that their local news media perform well at several aspects of their jobs, such as reporting the news accurately.
• At the same time, a relatively small share of Americans (15%) say they have paid for local news in the last year. And many seem unaware of the major financial challenges facing local news: A 63% majority (albeit a smaller majority than in 2018) say they think their local news outlets are doing very or somewhat well financially.
• Most Americans say local journalists should remain neutral on issues in their community, but a substantial minority say local journalists should take a more active role. About three-in-ten say local journalists should advocate for change in their communities, a view that’s especially common among Democrats and younger adults.

These are some of the key findings from a new Pew Research Center survey of about 5,000 U.S. adults conducted in January 2024. This is the first in a series of Pew Research Center reports on local news from the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.