Social media no longer serves solely to share vacation photos. For a large part of the 15-30 age group, it has become the first reflex for following the news. This habit transforms the way information circulates, is verified, and consumed on a daily basis.
News Creators on TikTok and Twitch: Trust Comes Through the Face
Have you noticed that a two-minute news summary filmed face-to-camera captures more attention than a traditional news article? This is the principle behind “news creators,” those videographers who decode the news on TikTok, Instagram, or Twitch.
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The Reuters Institute, in its Digital News Report 2024 (University of Oxford, June 2024), observes that among 18-24 year-olds in Europe, TikTok and Instagram are more often used to follow independent creators than media brands. The perceived authenticity of the creator matters more than the institutional status of the media that employs them.
Specifically, a Twitch streamer commenting on a parliamentary session live attracts an audience that would never have watched the parliamentary channel. The format is informal, the tone direct, and the chat allows for real-time questions. This blend of entertainment and information blurs the boundaries, but it brings back to the news people who had distanced themselves from it.
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To follow these new forms of information and the topics that engage the current generation, newsyoung.fr gathers youth and trending themes in an accessible format.
Short Audio Formats: Why the Five-Minute Podcast Replaces the News Bulletin
Long podcasts (45 minutes to an hour) have found their audience. But since 2023-2024, another format is gaining ground: short audio, often under five minutes. Mini-chronicles on Spotify, editorialized voice notes on WhatsApp, excerpts from lives broadcast on Instagram.
Spotify, in its Culture Next France 2024 report (October 2024), highlights this trend. Young listeners want a quick briefing, listenable during commutes or between classes. Not an exhaustive dossier, but a condensed version that makes them want to dig deeper.
This format works because it respects two constraints:
- It fits into empty moments of the day, where reading an article would be too engaging (waiting in line, short trips, breaks)
- It relies on voice, which creates a stronger sense of closeness than text, especially when the tone is conversational
- It is easily shared via messaging, making it a vector of information among peers, without going through a news feed algorithm
The risk is the same as that of short videos: excessive simplification. A complex topic summarized in three minutes loses its nuances. Short audio works better as an entry point than as a sole source.
Social Media and Television: Two Screens That Do Not Play the Same Role
According to the Youth Barometer and the INJEP survey of 2024, seven out of ten young people aged 15 to 30 follow the news several times a week. Social media dominates as an access channel, but television still holds a real place, especially among those aged 25-30.
The two screens do not serve the same function. Social platforms are for discovery: you stumble upon a topic via an algorithm or a share. Television serves for confirmation or deepening, often in a family setting.
The INJEP survey also reveals clear differences by gender. Young women follow more news about current events, fashion, and health topics. Young men lean more towards sports. Curiosity and understanding of the world remain the primary motivations, regardless of the profile.
The Role of Family Surroundings
A point often underestimated: young people from families where current affairs are regularly discussed are significantly more diligent in their follow-up. The informational reflex is transmitted, even when the channels change from one generation to the next.
Fact-Checking Among Young People: Three Distinct Profiles
The survey conducted in Normandy among high school seniors identified three profiles of information verification among adolescents. Not everyone reacts the same way to dubious information.
- A first group systematically verifies by cross-referencing sources, often influenced by media education received in high school
- A second group verifies occasionally, especially when the topic directly affects them or provokes a strong emotional reaction
- A third group hardly ever verifies, not out of disinterest, but due to a perceived lack of method or time
Trust in the media and verification reflexes also vary according to social background. Students who have benefited from media and information education (EMI) have a more positive view of this training and develop stronger cross-referencing habits.
What Adults Do Not Always See
Researcher Anne Cordier emphasizes that young people mobilize informational resources that often escape adult scrutiny. Discord groups, Reddit discussion threads, messages shared via messaging: these informal channels constitute a parallel information ecosystem, neither better nor worse than traditional channels, but different in its logic of trust.
The challenge for the coming years will likely not be to bring young people back to traditional media. It will rather be to equip them with the tools to navigate a landscape where the source of information changes form every two years, while the demands for reliability remain the same.