The Evolving News Landscape: Comparing Media Habits and Trust Between Teens and Adults

April 29, 2026

The news industry has an imperative to understand how news habits differ by generation. In an increasingly fractured media ecosystem, age is a major factor in determining people’s news and information needs and priorities, the ways they access news, and who they trust to provide it. This understanding of news engagement by generation is essential for news leaders to develop innovative strategies to reach news consumers across age, including new opportunities to collaborate with influencers, independent creators, and local news and information providers.

A new in-depth study by the Media Insight Project, which surveyed both adults and teens as young as 13 years old, provides a deep look into how news engagement does and does not vary by generation.

This report is the latest study from the Media Insight Project, a collaboration of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the American Press Institute, Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and the Local News Network at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. This study features a combined sample of 1,092 respondents ages 18 and older and 1,009 respondents ages 13-17, both nationally representative.

AMONG THE STUDY FINDINGS:

The media diets of teens and adults differ sharply, with social media dominating teen news use while older adults rely heavily on television and newspapers. Teens ages 13–17 are the only age group in which most (57%) get news from social media at least daily, whereas adults 65 and older overwhelmingly turn to TV (74%).
Hard news engagement grows with age, while teens are more likely to be heavy lifestyle news consumers. Only 12% of teens qualify as “avid hard news consumers” — people who follow news related to politics, social issues, the economy, environment, or crime. The number is almost three times higher, 35%, for adults 65 and older. At the same time, teens ages 13-17 (48%) — more than any other age group — follow many lifestyle topics closely, reflecting distinct generational priorities.
Local news remains widely used and positively viewed, yet the pathways to it vary substantially by age. Adults 65 and older are more likely than some younger age groups to rely on local news outlets such as TV, radio, or newspapers, while teens ages 13-17 are more likely than older adults over 65 to get local news from local influencers or independent creators (48% vs. 23%). Despite these differences, adults and teens across all ages tend to view local news outlets as effective at covering important issues and verifying facts.
Influencers or independent creators have become a major, cross‑generational information source — especially for national news, pop culture, or wellness. A majority of teens and adults, fully 57%, receive at least some news from influencers or independent creators, with teens (81%) engaging most frequently.
When it comes to building trust in the creator community, those who get news from influencers or independent creators say transparency — particularly around sponsored content and the mission of the account — is more important to them than how many followers a creator has. Fifty percent feel that transparency around sponsored content is very important compared with only 10% who say the same about follower count.
Concerns about misinformation and media reliability shape how people evaluate both traditional and influencer‑based sources. While many teens and adults say influencers or independent creators do at least somewhat well at transparency (66%), trust is far from absolute.
Confidence in news sources is low across the board, with fewer than half of teens and adults expressing a great deal of confidence in any source type, though local news ranks highest. Local news is viewed as most trustworthy, followed by national news, independent creators, and AI chatbots. Each source type has distinct perceived strengths: local news ranks highest for providing useful information (41%), while independent creators are seen by roughly one in four as best at treating all sides fairly.
Teens and adults hold politicians and social media companies primarily responsible for misinformation. A majority blame politicians (66%) for spreading misinformation, while local news receives the least blame (35%).
Despite feeling capable of navigating news, few say it gives them a hopeful view of the world. Most report avoiding news about specific topics, especially celebrity news (71%) or political content (62% avoid news stories about Donald Trump; 57% news about national politics), with older adults managing exposure more actively than younger people.

The nationwide poll was conducted February 5-8, 2026 and February 2-16, 2026, using the AmeriSpeak® Panel and AmeriSpeak® Teen Panel, probability-based panels of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 2,101 Americans ages 13 and older. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.9 percentage points.