The 2025 Reuters Digital News Report (DNR) launched globally on June 17. This is the 14th edition of this report, which is based on an online survey of almost 100,000 people in 48 markets. I write about it every year for the FM, as it provides a useful barometer in terms of the media environment.
By learning about what is happening in other markets, South African media can get an early start on trends about to play out here. Equally, it’s interesting to look at where South Africa bucks certain trends, or in some cases is in the top percentile.
In the spirit of full disclosure, the organisation I work for, Code for Africa, has been involved with the DNR since 2019, and I have had the pleasure of organising the Africa-specific launch for the past few years.
Typically, each year we invite editors from the four countries covered to be part of a panel discussion about the report. What makes this year’s launch, on June 23, particularly interesting is that we have invited a news influencer to take part for the first time.
Joining Daily Maverick editor Jillian Green and the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism’s Africa editor, Ajibola Amzat, will be Justine Wanda, the creator and host of Fake Woke with Justine, a satirical web series that provides social commentary on Kenyan sociopolitical and cultural issues.
The DNR launches in the UK, US and Asia feature panellists from traditional media houses such as the BBC, The New York Times, Reuters, Nikkei and Sky, with the odd academic thrown in. Only India and Africa include news influencers on the panels. The Indian launch will have Akash Banerjee, a YouTuber who has more than 5-million subscribers to his satirical show The Deshbhakt.
All of which makes me a little proud of the Global South, I must say, given that one of the big findings of the report is the increasing prominence of influencers and personality-led news creators. Their influencer-style news formats are gaining traction due to their entertainment value and the creative storytelling they employ.
DNR lead author Nic Newman says: “The rise of social video and personality-driven news represents another significant challenge for traditional publishers that are struggling to adapt their content and tone to these very different environments.
“Online video may be a good way to engage younger audiences, but there is very little commercial upside for publishers, with most news consumption taking place via platforms rather than owned and operated news websites.” Even more threatening to traditional media’s role is that “publishers also face a loss of influence, with populist politicians increasingly looking to bypass scrutiny by working with sympathetic influencers instead”.
Given that finding, it seems appropriate that news influencers are sharing a panel with editors from the more traditional side of media. I find it encouraging that the launches for India and Africa are ahead of the game in that respect. If you look at some of the findings for the African countries, it’s clear that news influencers are a huge part of our news ecosystem.
For example, the top markets which said they had used TikTok and YouTube for news “in the last week” are almost all in the Global South, with South Africa at 33% for TikTok and 42% for YouTube. In the South African section of the DNR, I write that the use of TikTok for news has grown five percentage points since 2024, which might have an impact on trust in the news given that 56% of South Africans identified TikTok as a potential source of disinformation.
In her foreword to the report, Mitali Mukherjee, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, writes: “When it comes to underlying sources of false or misleading information, online influencers and personalities are seen as the biggest threat worldwide along with national politicians.”
Disinformation is a major issue for news consumers. The DNR reveals that a significant portion of people, about 58%, are concerned about their ability to distinguish between real and fake news online.
This is a four percentage point increase since 2022, so it’s getting worse. It’s highest in Africa, with 73% expressing concern. This is the same percentage as the US, which seems appropriate given that much of the architecting of disinformation comes from that country’s social media platforms. South Africa is way above the 58% average, with 73% of people surveyed saying they’re worried, and Nigeria is even higher at 84%.
This isn’t necessarily about demonstrably false information; that would make it too easy for the fact-checkers among us. This distrust is often driven by narratives that people disagree with, or perceptions of bias. And the report reveals that “a significant group (32%) believes that journalists are a big part of the problem”, though this is more pronounced in highly polarised countries.
The proportion of all people that consume social video has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025
— Digital News Report 2025
The other major category in the DNR is trust in the news. Though South Africa (55%) is still well ahead of the global average (40%) and is ranked fifth out of the 48 countries covered, it has suffered a six percentage point drop since 2022’s high of 61%. That almost all South African news brands, while still scoring high, have suffered a decline in trust is also something that worries me, and should worry anyone who understands the value of the media’s contribution to maintaining a healthy democracy.
Mukherjee writes: “While overall trust in the news has remained stable for the third year in a row at 40%, two emerging themes bear keen attention.
“The first is the rise of an alternative media ecosystem: YouTubers, TikTokers and podcasters. The second emerging theme is that AI chatbots are being used as a source of news for the first time. While the numbers are still relatively small overall, they are markedly higher for young audiences.
“The delicate dance for news publishers attempting to understand how best to use AI in news becomes more complicated, as audiences in most countries remain sceptical about the use of AI in news. Across countries, survey respondents expect that AI will make the news cheaper to produce but also less trustworthy.”
The report is rich with other detail: how audiences think about news personalisation, the feasibility of paywalls, the changing environment for podcasts, why people are avoiding the news, and how divided people are about how content moderation on social media platforms should work.
You won’t be surprised to note that on the question of whether platforms should be removing more or less content that may be false but not illegal, “there are sharp differences between the US and Europe and between ideologies, with those on the right more likely to be against removing content”.
In terms of where people go to consume news, the report says that “across 48 markets audiences have become more dependent on social and video platforms, with 44% of 18-24s saying these networks are their main source of news. At the same time, the proportion of all people that consume social video has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025.
“In the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya and India, more people now say they prefer to watch the news rather than read it, encouraging the shift to news creators. In some countries, these personalities are playing a significant role in shaping public debates. One-fifth (22%) of our US sample say they came across news or commentary from popular podcaster Joe Rogan in the week after the presidential inauguration, including a disproportionate number of young men, a group traditional media struggles to reach.”
What does this mean for the evolving media ecosystem in South Africa? Is there a way to include news influencers under the umbrella of an organisation such as the South African National Editors’ Forum, so that there is a standard of journalistic ethics and codes of conduct to which the news media in general can adhere?
Unlikely, I would think. Traditional media just doesn’t work at the same pace as the new media producers. But trying to maintain trust in news is something we are going to have to address. This is one of the questions I hope to ask the Africa launch panel next week, especially as it’s a rare opportunity to get mainstream editors and a news influencer together to work on answers.
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