German Findings of the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 on News Usage in International Comparison Published
Hamburg, 17 June 2025. Trust in news remains high in Germany. Forty-five percent of the adult online population believes that most news is generally trustworthy. Public service news, as well as local and regional newspapers, continue to enjoy the highest levels of trust. At the same time, the majority of respondents believe that human-produced news is more trustworthy than news created primarily by artificial intelligence (AI). These are the findings of the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025. The Leibniz Institute for Media Research conducted the German sub-study. The study is based on nearly 100,000 respondents from 48 countries on six continents. The German survey was conducted in January 2025.
Television is the Most Important Source of News
To stay informed about current events, 66 percent of adults online in Germany consume news on the internet at least once a week. The most frequently used online news sources are social media platforms like Facebook, X, and YouTube (33%). Among 18-24-year-olds, half regularly consume news on these platforms. Around one-third of 18-24-year-olds consider social media their most important source of news. Around one in six people in this age group (17%) only comes into contact with news content on social media. Additionally, 61 percent of adult internet users in Germany watch a news program on traditional television at least once a week. Among the youngest age group, the figure is just under a third. The majority of the adult online population (43%) also considers linear television to be the most important source of news, followed closely by internet news sources (42%).
Generative AI Chatbots Used by Only a Few to Retrieve News
Despite their growing prevalence, generative AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, currently play a minor role in news consumption. Only four percent of adult internet users in Germany use a generative AI chatbot weekly for this purpose. Among respondents under the age of 35, this percentage is slightly higher, at nine and ten percent, respectively. Furthermore, generative AI chatbots are almost always used alongside other news sources, and there is currently no evidence that they are replacing traditional sources of information.
Traditional News Media Dominate Social Media Usage
In 2025, the social media platforms most used by respondents to search for, read, watch, share, or discuss news are YouTube (18%), WhatsApp (15%), and Facebook (15%). Among the youngest surveyed, 18- to 24-year-olds, 29 percent regularly consume news on Instagram, followed by YouTube (23%) and WhatsApp (20%). Overall, content from traditional news media and journalists receives the most attention on social media. This applies to both older and younger users. At the same time, 18- to 24-year-olds say slightly more often than older respondents that they pay the most attention to news content from political figures and social media influencers.
Concern about Disinformation, Especially on TikTok
The relatively high level of trust that adult internet users in Germany have in news media is reflected in their assessment of sources that pose a high risk of spreading false or misleading information online. More than half of respondents view online influencers and personalities as major threats in connection with disinformation and misinformation. A further 47 percent believe that activists, foreign governments, and politicians pose a major threat, while 40 percent think the same of politicians and parties in Germany. In comparison, news media and journalists are perceived as less threatening (24%).
Among different channels and platforms, TikTok is considered the most dangerous (57%), followed closely by X (53%) and Facebook (50%). Only 14 percent believe that news websites pose a major threat regarding false or misleading information online. To verify potentially false or misleading information, most respondents (40%) would consult a trusted news source.
Skepticism toward Automatically Generated News
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism is met with widespread skepticism. Fifty-four percent of respondents feel somewhat or very uncomfortable with news produced primarily by AI. Acceptance is slightly higher for news produced with some AI assistance but primarily by human journalists (34%).
Respondents also show little interest in using news services tailored to their individual needs with AI assistance. The youngest age group, 18- to 24-year-olds, shows the greatest interest in such personalized news services. They are particularly interested in the use of AI for summaries, translations, and simplified formulations of news articles.
Downward Trend in News Interest Stopped, but Active News Avoidance Increased
Interest in news remained stable in 2025. As in the previous year, 55 percent of adult internet users in Germany reported being extremely or very interested in news. The general reach of news also remained high: 91 percent consumed news more than once a week (in 2024, it was 89 percent). However, 71 percent of adult internet users say they actively avoid the news at least occasionally, which is an increase from 69 percent in 2024.
The most important reason for avoiding the news is its negative impact on one’s mood (48%). Additionally, 39% of news avoiders say there is too much reporting on wars and conflicts, and they are exhausted by the amount of news. Older subgroups aged 55 and above more frequently cite excessive reporting on wars and conflicts (49%), while 18- to 24-year-olds say they are slightly more often exhausted by the amount of news (43%). Additionally, this age group says the news does not seem relevant to their lives (19%) and that they feel they cannot do anything with the information (19%).
About the Study
Since 2012, the Reuters Institute Digital News Survey has conducted annual, representative surveys in 48 countries to examine general trends and national characteristics in news consumption. Coordinated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford, the study is conducted simultaneously in Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, India[1], Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco1, the Netherlands, Nigeria1, Norway, Peru1, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia (added in 2025), Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa1, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand1, Turkey, and the United States. Around 2,000 people were surveyed in each country in 2025. The 13th edition of the study is based on the responses of nearly 100,000 people from 48 countries on six continents.
Fieldwork in Germany was conducted from January 16 to 30, 2025, by the survey institute YouGov. YouGov drew samples based on online access panels representative of internet users aged 18 and over in participating countries. “Representative” means that the sample structurally reflects the internet-using population in terms of age, gender, region, and education, or has been weighted accordingly. When interpreting the results, keep in mind that sampling from online access panels may slightly overestimate aspects of internet affinity and social web usage. The standard error of the given values is usually between one and three percent.
The Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut has been responsible for the German sub-study as a cooperation partner since 2013; the 2025 survey was supported by the state media authorities and the Second German Television (ZDF).
The German sub-study will be available for download here from June 17, 2025: https://doi.org/10.21241/ssoar.102887
The international report in English can be accessed at http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/2025.
Contact
Julia Behre, j.behre@leibniz-hbi.de
Information about the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Founded in 2006 by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the institute is based in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. It is an internationally active center for comparative journalism research that offers researchers from a wide range of disciplines a forum to meet journalists from around the world and takes a global perspective in its research. For more information, visit http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/.
Information about the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI)
For 75 years, the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut has been researching media change and the associated structural changes in public communication. Cross-media, interdisciplinary, and independent, it combines basic science and transfer research, thus creating problem-relevant knowledge for politics, business, and civil society. In 2019, the institute was accepted into the Leibniz Association. For more information, visit https://leibniz-hbi.de/en/.
[1] Limited representativeness of the sample.