Mar 21, 2017

Social media sources for news, ranked by user trust

A new study by the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most people who use social media to get news often don't trust the content.

Fewer than 25% of people have a "great deal" of trust for social media as news sources overall, and that number plummets to 12% for Facebook. Overall, Snapchat had highest percentage of people willing to say they don't trust the platform at all.

Data: American Press Institute; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
Data: American Press Institute; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

Why it matters: Around 62% of U.S. adults get news on social media, and according to Pew, 68% of people don't trust the news they see or read, which is the highest distrust rate the U.S. has ever seen. In a separate study, Pew found that the social platforms people intentionally visit the most to get news are Linkedin, Twitter and Reddit, and the sites people stumble upon most to accidentally receive news are Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.

Go deeper