What is the media?News consumption in the UK

TV, radio and on-demand media in the UK is supervised by Ofcom (Office of Communications). Ofcom is there to make sure people can have access to services and that programmes and content are of a good quality and are fair.

As part of its work, Ofcom carries out research into media that people in the UK use.

Research findings from Ofcom in 2019

• Half of people (49%) now use social media for news.
• The top three news sources in 2019 were BBC (58%), ITV (40%) and Facebook (35%).
• TV remains the most used platform for news but usage has decreased from 79% to 75%.
• At a platform level, measures such as quality, accuracy, trustworthiness and impartiality tend to be strongest among readers of magazines and weakest among users of social media.
• Use of many social media platforms for news has increased.
• Six in ten 12-15 year olds say they are either 'very' or 'quite' interested in news.