Historic election drove news engagement bump in 2024
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A chaotic presidential race, the meteoric rise of Elon Musk and the continued Israel-Hamas war drove a modest increase in news engagement in 2024 compared to 2023, according to news consumption data across social media, online news websites and cable news channels.
Why it matters: It's unlikely U.S. news consumption levels will ever reach pandemic-era highs, but year-over-year gains show how much a major election can get people to tune back in.
By the numbers: While the media conversation for this election centered on alternative media — like podcasters, TikTokers and streamers — supplanting traditional information sources, mainstream digital and cable outlets still grew their footprints in 2024.
- Major U.S. news websites grew web traffic by roughly 10% year over year, according to data from Similarweb and Taboola.
- On television, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN saw prime-time ratings increase last year compared to 2023, but ratings were still down significantly compared to 2020.
- A group of 10 major outlets grew interactions on their Instagram pages 7% in 2024 compared to the year prior, according to data from NewsWhip.
Yes, but: The demise of the link post on social media was laid bare in an election year, as the group of 10 publishers measured by NewsWhip saw engagement on such posts on Facebook and X decline 41% from 2023.
Zoom in: A historic election, which included an assassination attempt captured on live television, Donald Trump's criminal trial and an eleventh-hour Democratic candidate, led to major news engagement spikes throughout the summer that helped elevate overall news engagement levels for 2024.
- Other major headlines, such as Hurricane Helene, Elon Musk's political ascendance, the Israel-Gaza war and Taylor Swift's $2 billion Era's tour. also helped drive news engagement levels last year.
Between the lines: Measuring news consumption in a digital era is harder now than it was just a few years ago, thanks to more social media platforms moving away from news referrals and link-sharing, but enough data still exists to understand how news consumption in America is evolving.
The big picture: News engagement spiked dramatically during the first Trump presidency, leading to a historic level of subscription and traffic boosts at major publishers. It's been less consistent ever since.
- 2020, engagement spikes: News engagement soared to unprecedented levels in 2020, amid the outbreak of COVID-19 and a close presidential election.
- 2021, engagement plummets: Engagement fell off a cliff in 2021 compared to the year prior, although there were big attention spikes in the beginning of the year amid the Jan. 6 Capitol siege.
- 2022, consumption stabilizes: News engagement continued to dwindle in 2022 amid a more tempered Biden-era news cycle. But that engagement drop was more tempered compared to 2021's precipitous year-over-year decline. The biggest global event of that year — the Russia-Ukraine war — didn't yield sustained interest.
- 2023, consumption pivots to softer topics: Engagement with news and political news fell considerably during the Biden era. In 2023, engagement with news related to the 2024 election cycle was down significantly from 2019, as Americans funneled their attention toward lighter topics, like sports and entertainment.
What's next: The news media industry is on pins and needles waiting to see whether Trump 2.0 will bring engagement on anything approaching the level of his first term. The early signs are ominous.
- Web traffic to major news websites saw a pronounced decline in December, according to data from Similarweb. Publishers, including CNN and the Washington Post, saw double-digit percentage declines in December compared to October.
- Polling helps to explain why readers changed the channel post-election: Two-thirds of Americans said they felt the need to dial down political news consumption, according to a December AP-NORC survey.
What to watch: Pew Research Center data suggests more Americans, especially younger ones, are getting their news from TikTok.
- Should TikTok be banned, as seems likely, analysts expect other social platforms, like Instagram, Reddit and Snapchat, to absorb some of that news engagement.
Go deeper: Charting 2024's chaos
