Social media overtakes TV, news websites as Malaysians’ main source of news

The 2026 Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute reveals a significant shift in news consumption, with social media surpassing television and news websites as the primary source across 48 surveyed markets, including Malaysia.

In Malaysia, nearly 70% of respondents rely on social media for news, reflecting a decline in traditional sources like television and print.

Platforms such as WhatsApp and TikTok are increasingly pivotal, with video content becoming a major medium.

The report also highlights generational differences in news habits and a growing dependence on social media for discovering and sharing news, raising concerns about the accuracy and reliability of information.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — News consumption has reached a turning point: social media now edges television and news websites as the most widely used source of news.

This changing mix of traditional and digital news sources is reflected in the 2026 edition of the annual Digital News Report, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Across the 48 markets covered in 2026, social media was the most widely used source of news, averaging 54 per cent. Television followed at 52 per cent, while news websites were used by 51 per cent.

In 2017, television led at 73 per cent and news websites at 69 per cent, while social media stood at 54 per cent. Its move into first place therefore reflects the decline of the other two sources more than long-term growth in its own reach.

Social media dominates Malaysia’s news mix

Malaysia’s shift is even more pronounced. Nearly seven in 10 respondents used social media for news in 2026, compared with 42 per cent for news websites and 36 per cent for television.

What stands out over the decade is not the growth of social media, which has remained above 60 per cent since 2017, but the retreat of established news channels.

News website use fell 24 per centage points and television dropped 18 points. Print recorded the steepest fall at 31 points.

Radio remained a smaller and more volatile source, reaching 23 per cent in 2026.

Among Malaysian respondents overall, AI chatbot use stood at 11 per cent in 2026, compared with nine per cent in 2025. Podcast use was eight percent, compared with nine percent the year before. With only two years of data available for both, it is too early to establish a longer-term direction.

Social media is not only where Malaysians consume news. Increasingly, it is how they find it.

In 2026, 63 per cent discovered news through social media, compared with 44 per cent through search engines and just 27 per cent through direct visits to news websites and apps.

Other routes remained less common, with news aggregators and mobile alerts both at 20 per cent, while email stood at 12 per cent.

Taken together, the figures suggest that the change is not simply a move from traditional to digital media. Social media now plays a dual role: it is both a source of news and the main route through which Malaysians discover it.

WhatsApp and video platforms gain ground

The platforms carrying that news are changing too.

WhatsApp overtook Facebook as Malaysia’s most widely used platform for news in 2026, although only narrowly, at 50 per cent versus 49 per cent.

The bigger shift, however, has been towards video. TikTok surged from just two per cent in 2019 to 45 per cent in 2026, while YouTube climbed from 26 per cent to 41 per cent over the decade.

Together, their growth points to video becoming a much larger part of how Malaysians find, watch and share news.

The platform mix also continues to change. Threads reached 11 per cent in 2026 after appearing in the survey at two per cent in 2024, while X fell to nine percent after peaking at 22 per cent in 2022.

That growing dependence on social platforms also raises a harder question: how carefully are users checking what reaches them?

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s Internet Users Survey 2024 found that 61.5 per cent of internet users shared news, while the proportion checking its validity and source reliability fell from 79.2 per cent to 70.7 per cent.

The survey also noted growing reliance on automated or platform-based fact-checking. It added that trust in online content was declining amid the rise of fake news, particularly political and health misinformation.

News habits differ by age and gender

Social media crossed generations, with usage ranging from 65 to 71 per cent across every age group in 2026.

The sharper differences appeared in the use of other news sources. Respondents aged 55 and above recorded higher use of news websites, television, radio and print than younger age groups, while younger Malaysians were more likely to turn to newer formats.

That contrast was especially clear with AI chatbots. Twenty-one per cent who use them in 2026 were among those aged 18 to 24. A mere six per cent of the respondents were aged 45 and above.

Podcast use showed a similar, though less pronounced, pattern, with younger respondents recording the highest use.

The age divide was therefore not a simple split between digital and traditional media. Older Malaysians remained active on social media while continuing to use established news sources at higher rates, whereas younger users were more likely to add newer formats such as AI chatbots and podcasts to their news habits.

A study of Malaysian Generation Z published in Media Asia identified virality, news awareness, the ubiquity of news and credibility as themes in how participants understood news. The findings offer some context for a media environment in which news appears alongside entertainment, personal updates and commentary rather than occupying a space of its own.

Gender differences were modest for social media but considerably wider for some established news sources.

Social media use was almost identical among women and men, at 69 and 68 per cent respectively. News websites showed the biggest gap, however, reaching 48 per cent of men compared with 36 percent of women.

The pattern was less pronounced for AI chatbots. In 2026, they were used for news by 12 perc ent of men and 11 per cent of women, after use among women rose from seven per cent the previous year. Podcast use showed a wider difference, at 10 per cent among men and six per cent among women.

For Malaysians, the shift today is not simply about where news is consumed, but how it is discovered, shared and encountered. Traditional sources remain important, especially among older audiences, but social platforms now play a much greater role in determining what news reaches people in the first place.

The Digital News Report is based on annual online surveys conducted by YouGov. For the 2026 edition, fieldwork was carried out between mid-January and the end of February. The Malaysian sample comprised 2,076 respondents, while annual samples from 2017 to 2026 ranged from 2,004 to 2,108 respondents.

The number of markets covered increased from 36 in 2017 to 48 in 2025 and 2026, meaning the international trend figures are annual averages across the markets surveyed rather than a fixed group. Respondents could select more than one news source, so the figures do not add up to 100 per cent or represent market shares. — Bernama

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路透社研究所发布的《2026 年数字新闻报告》显示，新闻消费方式发生了重大转变，在包括马来西亚在内的 48 个受访市场中，社交媒体已超越电视和新闻网站，成为主要新闻来源。

在马来西亚，近 70% 的受访者依赖社交媒体获取新闻，这反映出电视和印刷等传统新闻来源的衰落。

WhatsApp 和 TikTok 等平台的重要性日益凸显，视频内容也成为一种主要媒介。

该报告还强调了不同世代在新闻习惯上的差异，以及人们越来越依赖社交媒体来发现和分享新闻，这引发了人们对信息准确性和可靠性的担忧。

吉隆坡，9月12日讯——新闻消费已达到一个转折点：社交媒体如今已超越电视和新闻网站，成为最广泛使用的新闻来源。

传统新闻来源和数字新闻来源的这种不断变化的组合反映在路透新闻研究所发布的 2026 年版年度数字新闻报告中。

在2026年覆盖的48个市场中，社交媒体是最广泛使用的新闻来源，平均使用率为54%。电视紧随其后，使用率为52%，而新闻网站的使用率为51%。

2017年，电视以73%的份额领先，新闻网站以69%的份额位居第二，而社交媒体则为54%。因此，社交媒体跃居榜首更多地反映了其他两个渠道的衰落，而非其自身影响力的长期增长。

社交媒体主导着马来西亚的新闻格局。

马来西亚的转变更为显著。近七成受访者表示，到2026年，他们将通过社交媒体获取新闻，相比之下，42%的受访者会访问新闻网站，36%的受访者会通过电视获取新闻。

过去十年最引人注目的不是社交媒体的增长（自 2017 年以来一直保持在 60% 以上），而是传统新闻频道的衰落。

新闻网站的使用率下降了24个百分点，电视的使用率下降了18个百分点。纸媒的降幅最大，达31个百分点。

广播仍然是一个规模较小且波动较大的来源，到 2026 年达到 23%。

总体而言，马来西亚受访者中，人工智能聊天机器人的使用率预计在2026年达到11%，而2025年为9%。播客的使用率也从前一年的9%上升至8%。由于这两项数据都只有两年，现在判断其长期发展趋势还为时尚早。

社交媒体不仅是马来西亚人获取新闻的渠道，而且越来越成为他们发现新闻的方式。

到 2026 年，63% 的人通过社交媒体发现新闻，相比之下，44% 的人通过搜索引擎发现新闻，只有 27% 的人直接访问新闻网站和应用程序。

其他途径仍然不太常见，新闻聚合器和移动提醒均为 20%，而电子邮件为 12%。

综合来看，这些数据表明，这种变化并非仅仅是从传统媒体向数字媒体的转变。社交媒体如今扮演着双重角色：它既是新闻来源，也是马来西亚人获取新闻的主要途径。

WhatsApp和视频平台发展势头强劲

传播这些新闻的平台也在发生变化。

WhatsApp 在 2026 年超越 Facebook 成为马来西亚使用最广泛的新闻平台，但优势并不明显，市场份额分别为 50% 和 49%。

然而，更大的转变在于视频领域。TikTok 的市场份额从 2019 年的 2% 飙升至 2026 年的 45%，而 YouTube 的市场份额在过去十年间也从 26% 攀升至 41%。

它们共同的增长表明，视频在马来西亚人查找、观看和分享新闻的方式中扮演着越来越重要的角色。

平台构成也在不断变化。Threads 在 2024 年的调查中占比为 2%，到 2026 年达到 11%；而 X 在 2022 年达到 22% 的峰值后，下降到 9%。

用户对社交平台的日益依赖也引出了一个更棘手的问题：用户究竟有多仔细地检查他们接收到的信息？

马来西亚通讯及多媒体委员会 2024 年互联网用户调查发现，61.5% 的互联网用户分享新闻，而检查新闻真实性和来源可靠性的比例从 79.2% 下降到 70.7%。

调查还指出，人们越来越依赖自动化或基于平台的核实方式。调查补充说，随着虚假新闻，特别是政治和健康领域的虚假信息的泛滥，人们对网络内容的信任度正在下降。

新闻阅读习惯因年龄和性别而异

社交媒体跨越了世代，预计到 2026 年，各个年龄段的使用率将达到 65% 至 71%。

在其他新闻来源的使用方面，差异更为显著。55岁及以上的受访者比年轻群体更多地使用新闻网站、电视、广播和纸质媒体，而年轻的马来西亚人则更倾向于使用新兴的新闻形式。

这种对比在人工智能聊天机器人领域尤为明显。2026年，使用人工智能聊天机器人的用户中，21%的年龄在18至24岁之间。而45岁及以上的受访者仅占6%。

播客的使用情况也呈现出类似的模式，尽管这种模式不太明显，年轻受访者的使用率最高。

因此，年龄差异并非简单地体现在数字媒体和传统媒体之间的割裂。年长的马来西亚人仍然活跃于社交媒体，并且继续以更高的频率使用传统新闻来源，而年轻用户则更倾向于将人工智能聊天机器人和播客等新兴新闻形式融入到他们的新闻习惯中。

《亚洲媒体》发表的一项针对马来西亚Z世代的研究发现，病毒式传播、新闻意识、新闻的普遍性和可信度是受访者理解新闻的关键因素。研究结果为新闻与娱乐、个人动态和评论并存，而非占据独立空间的媒体环境提供了一定的背景。

社交媒体上的性别差异并不明显，但一些老牌新闻媒体的性别差异则要大得多。

社交媒体的使用率在女性和男性中几乎相同，分别为69%和68%。然而，新闻网站的使用率差距最大，男性用户占48%，而女性用户仅占36%。

人工智能聊天机器人的使用模式不太明显。2026年，12%的男性和11%的女性使用聊天机器人获取新闻，女性的使用率从前一年的7%上升至2026年。播客的使用情况则呈现出更大的性别差异，男性使用率为10%，女性为6%。

对马来西亚人来说，如今的转变不仅仅在于新闻的获取渠道，更在于新闻的发现、分享和呈现方式。传统媒体依然重要，尤其是在老年受众群体中，但社交平台在决定新闻的传播路径方面发挥着更为重要的作用。

《数字新闻报告》基于YouGov开展的年度在线调查。2026年版的调查工作于1月中旬至2月底进行。马来西亚样本包含2076名受访者，而2017年至2026年的年度样本量在2004至2108名受访者之间。

调查涵盖的市场数量从2017年的36个增加到2025年和2026年的48个，这意味着国际趋势数据是所有受访市场的年度平均值，而非固定分组的平均值。受访者可以选择多个新闻来源，因此这些数据总和不等于100%，也不代表市场份额。——马来西亚国家通讯社（Bernama）

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