The bar chart shows the percentage of adults who named each of five sources as their main source of news in 2005, 2015 and 2023.
Overall, traditional sources lost ground over the period, while websites and social media gained popularity. Television was the leading source in the first two years, but social media had become the most popular by 2023.
In 2005 television dominated, with 56% of adults, followed by newspapers at 28%. Websites and social media were almost insignificant, at 5% and 1% respectively. Television then fell to 42% in 2015 and 28% in 2023, half of its original share.
Newspapers declined even more sharply, from 28% to 15% in 2015 and just 6% in 2023. Radio also fell, but more gradually, from 10% in 2005 to 8% and then 5%.
Online sources moved in the opposite direction. Websites rose from 5% to 22% in 2015, and then increased more slowly to 26% in 2023. Social media showed the most remarkable growth, from 1% in 2005 to 13% in 2015 and 35% in 2023. This made it the main news source for more people than television, which stood 7 percentage points lower.