Internet overtakes television as the most important news source
42% of Germans use the internet to find out about current affairs. Concern about false reports is particularly high on TikTok and AI.
The typewriter has long since become obsolete in news journalism.
(Image: Laurel Bratcher/ Shutterstock.com)
For the first time, the internet is the most important source of news for the majority of the adult online population in Germany. 42% of Germans over the age of 18 inform themselves about current affairs primarily online, closely followed by linear television broadcasts with 41%. This is according to the Digital News Report 2024 published on Monday by the Oxford Reuters Institute on news usage in an international comparison. According to the report, 67% of adult internet users in Germany use digital news services on the websites or apps of news providers or on social media at least once a week to keep up to date with current events.
Online news usage continues to be dominated by traditional providers from TV, radio and print, according to the results for Germany: 45% regularly read, watch or listen to content from established brands. Among 18 to 24-year-olds, the figure is 47%. The most frequently used provider among the online sources surveyed is tagesschau.de with a weekly reach of 17%. In second place is T-Online, a purely online portal, with 16%. Transparency and high journalistic standards are the most important reasons for trust in news. The most popular topics are local affairs, politics, international affairs, climate change, security and science along with technology.
In a comparison of individual internet sources, social media is ahead with a weekly reach of 34 percent. Every second person under the age of 35 comes into contact with news content on social media. WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook remain the most widely used social media in 2024. 15 percent of respondents receive news mainly via social networks. This proportion has risen continuously over the long term and is highest among 18 to 24-year-olds at 35%. For 16% of 18 to 24-year-olds, social media is even the only source of news. In this age group, however, general internet usage is currently declining slightly according to another study.
Great unease about AI-generated news
The Reuters Research Institute has been investigating general trends and national characteristics of news usage annually since 2012 via online surveys in 47 countries. The Leibniz Institute for Media Research (Hans Bredow Institute) has been responsible for the German part of the study as a cooperation partner since 2013. The fieldwork in Germany was carried out by the survey institute YouGov in January. The report is considered representative of the German population aged 18 and over with internet access.
According to the results, concerns about false reports are particularly high on TikTok. 41% of users of the Chinese video app find it difficult to distinguish between trustworthy and unreliable news. There is also a lot of skepticism in this country when it comes to news articles that are distributed on the X platform. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism is viewed critically by many online users in this country: half of them feel rather or very uncomfortable using news that is mainly produced by technology with some human supervision. In terms of content, two thirds of users expect the news media to offer them different perspectives on current topics. However, only 43% are satisfied with this performance.
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