The Reuters Digital News Report 2026 says social media has nearly overtaken TV for Australian news, and trust is still at rock bottom

Australians are almost as likely to get their news from social media as from the telly, and they trust almost none of it.

That is the headline finding from the 2026 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, out this month. Television still holds the top spot as Australia's most used news source on 57 per cent, with social media right behind on 56 per cent. A year ago that gap was much wider. Now it is basically a rounding error.

Just 21 per cent of Australians trust the news they come across on social media. 51 per cent actively distrust it. Compare that to the 54 per cent who trust news they have deliberately gone looking for themselves.

People are not confused about the difference between a feed and a masthead. They just cannot help scrolling one while doubting the other.

Online video is the other big mover, up seven percentage points on last year as Australians increasingly watch the news rather than read it. Combine that with the trust gap and a fairly clear picture emerges. People are following news accounts, creators and clips on platforms they do not fundamentally believe, because that is where their attention already lives.

This is not really a story about misinformation, even though that is the easy read. It is a story about habit outrunning trust. Brands, publishers and creators chasing an Australian audience on social platforms are not fighting for belief. They are fighting for a slice of scroll time that already exists whether they show up or not.

For anyone running a media or brand account, the takeaway is not "be more trustworthy." It is "be worth the doubt." Show your sourcing. Name your reporters. Do not pretend a 15-second clip is the whole story, because your audience already suspects it is not.

Australians are not leaving television. They are just refusing to fully believe the feed while scrolling it anyway. Fair enough, honestly.