More Kenyans use TikTok, YouTube for news as X consumption dips: report

TikTok and YouTube are increasing in popularity as major news consumption platforms for Kenyans, a new study by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism shows.

The 2024 Digital News Report shows that Google-owned YouTube and TikTok, the short-form video platform by Chinese company ByteDance, recorded an increase in use among news consumers over the past year.

YouTube grew by 8 per cent to 59 per cent, while TikTok grew by 7 per cent to 36 per cent.

But while Facebook use stagnated, the Meta-owned platform remains the most popular social network for news among Kenyans, along with WhatsApp, both at 60 per cent.

On the other hand, X, formerly known as Twitter and which has been a big player in news consumption over the years, was the biggest loser with a decline of 3 per cent from the previous year to 37 per cent.

Kenyans’ news consumption on Instagram remained stable at 29 per cent.

At the same time, Citizen Digital was ranked the second-top digital news media platform by reach, coming behind Tuko. It was followed by Nation, Opera News and the news site Kenyans.co.ke.

For legacy media platforms (television, print and radio), Citizen TV was leading the Daily Nation newspaper, KTN, The Standard newspaper and NTV.

Researchers noted that respondents were generally more affluent, aged between 18 and 50 only, and with higher levels of formal education.

“[They] are more likely to live in cities than the overall Kenyan population. Findings should not be taken to be nationally representative,” the research said.

Globally, the research noted a rise in video as a news dissemination tool compared to text, especially among younger audiences.

Based on a survey of 95,000 people in 47 countries, it found that YouTube is used for news by almost a third (31%) of the global sample each week, WhatsApp by around a fifth (21%), while TikTok (13%) overtook Twitter (10%) for the first time.

“Short news videos are accessed by two-thirds (66%) of our sample each week, with longer formats attracting around half (51%). The main locus of news video consumption is online platforms (72%) rather than publisher websites (22%), increasing the challenges around monetisation and connection,” the report said.

However, researchers found a rise in selective news avoidance. Around four in ten (39%) respondents said they sometimes or often avoid the news, a 3 per cent increase from last year.

“In a separate question, we find that the proportion that say they feel ‘overloaded’ by the amount of news these days has grown substantially (+11%) since 2019 when we last asked this question,” the research notes.