Anchors to algorithms, has social media taken on the role of keeping the public informed?
We live in an era where online platforms have taken on the role as the primary source of news for many, overturning the traditional role of television. “Gen Z and Alpha are used to swiping and streaming, not flipping through broadcast TV channels,” said Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s director of market intelligence.
As of 2024, TV reach has fallen by 75%, and more than four-fifths of people between the ages of 16 and 24 get their news from social media, Ofcom found. As there is a growing demand for both fast and engaging content, this has put pressure on broadcasters as well as journalists to move to digital platforms.
“We’re witnessing a generational shift to online news,” Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom group director, told the Financial Times. More than half of UK adults 52% use social media for news, up from 47% in 2023.
According to recent reports for those around the age of 12-15, TikTok has come to be the most popular news source, while 16–24-year-olds are 30% more likely to consume news via social media rather than any other age group.
KRT TV’s youngest content creator and editor Serra Zembat tells Artefact that she recognises that there is a great concern for issues that this may bring particularly that of shortening attention spans, “That’s why I try to keep my videos as short as possible.”
When there are so many different outlets vying for your attention, the hardest part is to try to capture your audience, “you have not even five seconds” she tells us.
![Serra Zembat preparing for filming [Sinan Aktas]](https://www.artefactmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/81147bab-5526-4594-b1ce-14ea422a2123-768x1024.jpg)
Her 60-second videos have gained millions of views across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Zembat tells us that most viewership comes from the first 12-15 seconds of her videos.
Everything from the colours used in the thumbnail, down to the time of when you upload the videos, plays such a vital role when wanting to engage with the right viewers, Zembat tells Artefact.
It’s become harder to tear away from your phone once you’ve entered the world of infinite scrolling, a behaviour all social media platforms encourage. “The design exploits the human urge for a visual cue that a task is through—an empty plate, say, or the bottom of a page—and hooks us because it never delivers,” Hana Kiros writes in the Atlantic.
As the saying goes it takes one to know one: “There are many advantages of being a part of Generation Z when it comes to content creation. Not only is being in front of the camera something younger people love, but this also aside, as someone who spends a lot of time online, I’m able to grasp what younger audiences are interacting with.” Zembat argues.
In a world full of complexity “contrary to the popular belief, I think it’s much more difficult of a task to keep a video short, ensuring you’ve included all the crucial details whilst capturing the essence of the subject.”
This can be particularly challenging when the nature of such apps is so heavily reliant on digestible, bite-size information regardless of the topic at hand.
Sharing, commenting, and reposting have personalised user experiences, bringing together online communities, something traditional television can never account for.
The growing popularity of online news consumption allows room for misinformation.
“It’s worrying that social media is being increasingly used as a news source. It’s not just a problem for journalists, it’s a problem for all of us. And once a fake story is out there, it’s almost impossible to correct. I know, I’ve tried. Good luck trying to get anything taken down from X,” writes Fiona Bruce in the Radio Times.
As online platforms continue to reshape how we consume news, journalists are now faced with the challenge of not breaking the story first but doing it in a way that is compelling enough to be seen in an oversaturated digital world.
Featured image courtesy of Sinan Aktas.