The Social Side of News: Gen Z’s Way of Staying Informed
Summary
Gone are the days of passive news absorption—this generation actively shares and discusses sensational and relevant stories (from political upheavals to social justice movements) on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. They seek quick updates and in-depth content while prioritizing credibility and avoiding bias. Social media dominates their news intake, but Gen Z remains cautious about the influence of algorithms. For many, news serves as a means of staying socially engaged with their peers, but their involvement varies widely—some are constant news seekers, while others disengage from topics like politics and war that they find overwhelming or unrelatable.
Study context
This study was run by Conveo in August. Our AI moderator ran 65 qualitative voice and video interviews with a sample of GenZ aged 18 to 27. The median interview length was 39 minutes. All data was collected in under 36 hours. Conveo’s automated analysis did the parsing of the data and basic analysis, a human qualitative research expert built the storyline.
GenZ’s Daily News Consumption
We started by measuring when GenZ consumed their news. Our AI agent therefore probed for how media and news consumption looked like during a typical day. Doing so painted a fairly vivid picture of the media behaviour.
As digital natives it is clear this generation has almost completely cut the cord. Of all media usage interactions, our data show that only 15% are TV or print related. 45% of all usage happens through social media, 29% digital and the remaining 11% through podcasts.
The preferred channels for consuming news
100 Occurrences
Automatically coded mentions of news consumption channels
While most Zoomers are always on, more than 80% of GenZ’s news consumption happens fairly evenly in the morning and evening. GenZ kick starts the day with news updates and in the evening winds down while also engaging in lower energy activities such as listening to music, reading or streaming video. Throughout the day, news consumption consists of topping up and engaging in more light-hearted content such as comedy or cooking. On channels such as YouTube, Instagram and through specific podcasts, they consume a lot of curated content throughout that is easy to digest and while multi-tasking (e.g. while getting ready, driving or doing chores).
Gen Z in their own words
Our AI-powered interviews captured authentic voices from Gen Z. Here are some of their thoughts on news consumption:
“When I wake up I immediately hit the phone because it keeps me from falling back asleep. I check my messages and then I hit Instagram first. I have my main account where I keep up with actual people that I know. Then I hit my Finsta where I follow those influencers that I like and I check Instagram stories to start the day. I go through periods with TikTok where I have it downloaded and undownloaded because I know that if I have it, I almost develop addictive habits around it. So yeah, I wake up, hit Instagram, check my email, get ready for work. I go to work in the morning and that’s when I consume news. I try not to consume too much personal at work. The morning is when I hit cranes, early bird brief, the skim, and then I’ll hit maybe something generic like Google news to see what’s out there. Then on my lunch break at work, I’ll check Instagram. When I get home I turn on YouTube while I do some tasks around the house. It’s another way I keep up to date. Also with pop culture, I do a lot of podcasts. My favorite is New York times podcast. After work I’m usually on Spotify or YouTube playing something. Then I usually watch reality TV and before bed, I’m scrolling on mainly Instagram.“- Gen Z respondent
“In the morning I mostly just read any text messages that might have come through from family or friends while I was sleeping. I try to not go on social media early in the morning. During lunch or throughout the day I will typically open an app like Facebook or Instagram that’s a little bit easier to close out of. It doesn’t have a lot of long-form content on it. Before bed I mostly go on TikTok. Throughout the day as I’m driving or have maybe some more mindless tasks to do I’ll listen to podcasts then.“- Gen Z respondent
“There’s a lot of great content creators online on Instagram and YouTube, especially I listen to a lot of podcasts.“- Gen Z respondent
“If I’m sitting down I usually go for videos, sometimes articles and when I’m laying down for example in bed or just chilling on the couch then sometimes I turn on the podcast to just listen.“- Gen Z respondent
“In the morning I usually check what is trending for the day. I go to X and check, then I follow up the news for a bit before getting ready for work. During lunch I try to get a hang of what I was reading about earlier, then check if there is any breaking news or recent happenings. Before I go to bed that is when I do more of Instagram because in the morning time and during my lunch break I make use of X more. Instagram before bed is where I tend to watch funny videos and check out other fun things.“- Gen Z respondent
“When I wake up I check my messages that are usually on Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, iMessage. Then from there I tend to read all their messages and to respond to whichever ones I think are necessary. Then I get on TikTok for maybe 10-15 minutes. I’ll usually have it playing on while I go to the bathroom, get a drink, brush my teeth, eat breakfast. Then I work and usually I’m not on my phone very much. I usually have Spotify playing just because I don’t want to be listening to news 24-7. Then I come home and I usually play some video games. When I’m getting ready for bed, I usually like to listen to some political content or watch local news during dinner to see what’s going on.“- Gen Z respondent
Long gone are the days that news consumption is ’static’ or content is read or watched in isolation. ’Social’ is thé currency for GenZ’s news consumption.
A vast majority of GenZ’ers in our study shares news with peers and a larger network regularly.
What drives GenZ to share news?
The reason why they do so is mainly driven by those ’sensational events’ with a considerable impact or relevance for a country or society. At the time of our study, for example, former President Donald Trump had recently been shot and President Biden stepped out of the race. These topics were obviously shared a lot. A distant second reason for Zoomers to share news is when they consider it ’interesting for others’ to know’, when it has a level of curiosity or when it is relevant to the immediate local community. But, Zoomers are true plurals and share a diverse set of topics such as news related to their hobbies, content that encourages or helps others, as well as sensitive topics.
“The most recent news that I’ve shared is about starting a new hobby. I’ve recently got into metalworking to make jewellery. I think it’s very exciting. I’ve shared it with friends that I think would also be excited about it. My friends are very creative people. I shared it in the hopes of talking about it, get the chance to get together and work together.“- Gen Z respondent
“I shared the article about a woman who could smell Alzheimer’s. I just found it so interesting, and it stuck with me so much that I actually shared it with everyone. Many of my friends are also studying or involved in science. I just thought they would find it really interesting.“- Gen Z respondent
“I think local news on any sort of major weather or traffic incident or any local violence is really important to share with friends, just so we all know what’s happening in our communities.“- Gen Z respondent
“One way to strengthen my friendships is that whenever we’re going through a hard time, we give each other little religious reminders and it really does pick us up and put us in a better headspace.“- Gen Z respondent
News as a cognitive tool and a social connector
GenZ’s basic motivations for checking out news are tied to their ’intrinsic self’ to build cognition. There is the universal need for Post Millennials to stay informed, develop opinions based on different perspectives and hear others’ viewpoints at a much larger scale. It shapes their thinking one way or the other.
“I want to be aware of what’s going on so I can be informed and have my own opinion on matters rather than just depending on what other people say.“- Gen Z respondent
“I want to stay informed, develop my own opinions and try to enhance them, foreground them. Definitely want to hear others viewpoints even if I don’t agree with them.“- Gen Z respondent
But there is more to it. GenZ’s news consumption fuels conversations and increases their ’social engagement’. Leaning into news discussions is a way for them not to get isolated and is a means to stay relevant among peers and friends.
“The more you know, the more you’re likely to have conversations with people about stuff. Especially to have deep conversations about certain topics, news, even media that’s going around. It makes the time go faster. It makes conversation go smoother.“- Gen Z respondent
“I can engage with people who share common interests with me and engage in the shared likings together.“- Gen Z respondent
“I think social media plays a really big role in shaping public opinions, because not everybody watches the news through more professional news apps or outlets. They just use Instagram as their main source of information. If that is your only source where get your news from, it’s going to shape your opinion.“- Gen Z respondent
“I read articles on any news websites that I’m subbed for and watch the news with family sometimes. I get the basic gist from channels like ABC, MSNBC, and other platforms. Outside of that, definitely word of mouth with people around me. We talk about a lot of issues that come up on an everyday basis.“- Gen Z respondent
Social Media’s central role in GenZ’s news world
Not surprisingly, social media is pivotal in all this. Roughly 1 in 2 GenZ’ers in our study provide indications that social media is significant in their news and information delivery – against only 1 in 6 indicate it does not play role at all. Our AI agent asked participants to spontaneously name the brands or platforms they get their news from. Interestingly, in the top 5 mentions, four outlets are social media and in the second half of the top 10, all but one are traditional media.
Top 10 brands or platforms where GenZ usually gets their news from (in order of importance)
- CNN
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Fox News
- New York Times
- Local news
- Washington Post
The top 5 most popular social media for news are Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Specific social media do serve specific information needs. For example, YouTube is used for in-depth educational content while TikTok and Instagram are preferred for quick updates and trending news.
Navigating the news spectrum: from active seekers to casual browsers
The overall role social media plays in GenZ’s news consumption is based on people’s level of news involvement, which is a wide spectrum. At one end youngsters constantly and actively seek for news, while at the other they are passive and rather stumble upon news. When our AI insights engine tallies our qualitative data, it provides insights into this spectrum of news involvement. About 2 in 3 GenZ’ers tune into news but the spread in their topical interest is large. The top categories of interest are politics, current events, world news and entertainment. Zoomers also indicate they want to engage with positive content as well as a long tail of more niche topics that depends on individual taste (e.g. sports, science or financial news). Disengagement from news occurs in about one third of the instances, mainly when people are exposed to politics, business and economics and war topics.
“Any new stories regarding people helping each other out. People sharing kindness and love with one another. There’s so many positive stories to share, but I think the things that get more engagement typically are stories that are negative and upsetting. I like anything positive, like somebody just donated to underprivileged kids, something nice, not somebody going missing. I don’t want to hear about hate crime or somebody shooting up a church. It’s too depressing and it’s not like I can do anything to help everyone to fix everything, it gets too overwhelming. That’s what turns me off. But I do use certain media to get new information because the algorithms are tailored to things that I can consume in an easier way so it doesn’t become distressing.“- Gen Z respondent
“When it comes to media and news consumption, I am someone who is very, very online. I’m constantly plugged in. Whether it is news or my social media, and I like to know things in a timely fashion. I am very, very tuned in, and I’m always listening to what’s happening. When the presidential election is going on, especially, because I’m a very political person. I am very aware also in pop culture. I like to know what’s going on between my favorite music artists, in their lives, even if it doesn’t pertain to my own. I just like knowing a lot of stuff.“- Gen Z respondent
“Usually I hear about it just randomly and sometimes that’s a few days after it happened. If it’s something really big like a couple of days ago the assassination attempt on ex-president Trump, I heard about that from one of my family members.“- Gen Z respondent
“I watch a lot of local and community-based news, things that are relevant to my area. I don’t tend to watch a lot of national or global news. If I do get news from that, it’s usually somewhere on social media, or I like to follow political commentators on Twitch or Instagram or Twitter. But I’m never really seeking out that information. I usually just kind of stumble upon it.“- Gen Z respondent
“I liked the group of people in some neighborhood that were going around buying food for the homeless. That was a very nice act of kindness. Or a food deliverer got their order stolen and some kids in the neighborhood rushed after the thief, retreated the food deliverer. That was also very nice, basically compassion for one another that’s something I like to see.“- Gen Z respondent
Credibility, Checking and Algorithms
In choosing their (social) media channels, Zoomers search for credibility and the absence of bias. Next to being frequently used, social media are trusted more than traditional media in over half the cases. But, with increasing levels of news involvement, also rises the importance of fact-checking for them. Social media are often praised by GenZ for the convenient delivery and bite-sized curation, as well as the light-hearted entertaining topics (e.g. influencers, humor, pranks, games, celebrity gossip) or memes. But GenZ is wary about that the role of social media’s algorithms. While in curating content it can be helpful to alleviate information overload but that it can also spur (negative) commenting and be detrimental for people’s mental health.
“What really drives me is my mental health. I’ve got depression and anxiety and that can get out of hand if I’m not careful about how I’m feeling. Overconsumption of news media can be detrimental because I start to worry about everything that’s happening in the world and it makes me feel small. I can’t really do anything to help everyone to fix everything, it gets too overwhelming. That’s what turns me off. But I do use certain media to get new information because the algorithms are tailored to things that I can consume in an easier way so it doesn’t become distressing.“- Gen Z respondent
“TikTok is where I hear about most things. So when I hear about Joe Biden dropping out of the race or any kind of breaking news, I get it from TikTok usually.“- Gen Z respondent
“I really just like how convenient it is and how short the content is. I were to watch news, it’s usually about 30 minutes long, which I don’t always have time for. Having information broken down bit by bit is always nice. And sometimes I only want to hear information about certain things that TikTok will put on, so I don’t have to listen for 30 minutes to other stuff I don’t care about. I really like that it’s more curated towards me.“- Gen Z respondent
“With the click of a button, you’re immediately entertained. Even if you’re not enjoying yourself, at least you’re keeping your brain busy.“- Gen Z respondent
“I get a lot of workout tips from certain influencers, fitness influencers, such as Squat University. A lot of very helpful tips for things like physical therapy, ways of warming up, ways to perform certain lifts better. When it comes to things like diet, it’s very nice to read certain studies or articles that show the benefits of certain foods or harms of other.“- Gen Z respondent
“I don’t leave bad comments because everything affects my body. Words are very powerful so I don’t comment anything bad, but just report the post.“- Gen Z respondent
“Social media, with algorithms that play into certain interests, end up becoming one-sided. You’re always stuck in your own frame. It’s actually your own propaganda machine.“- Gen Z respondent
Head of Research and Methodologies