As traditional news consumption continues to decline, more and more people are turning to influencers on social media to get their information. These figures are increasingly shaping the public debates.
Australian audiences of news are skeptical. New research shows that more Australians think social media influencers pose a greater threat to misinformation than any other source.
The Digital News Report Australia 2025 released today also revealed that the general avoidance of news remains high. 69% said they tried to avoid it. Women, young people, and those living in regional areas are most likely to avoid news.
How can we make sure that people get the information they need when they are in need, if they don’t trust influencers but distrust traditional news? There are solutions.
Be suspicious of influencers
The Digital News Report for Australia is part of a global survey of digital news consumption conducted annually in 48 countries by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford.
YouGov conducted the survey in January and february 2025. Age, gender and location are all weighted into the data. Also, quotas for education and politics were applied.
We surveyed 2,006 Australian online adults for the 11th edition of this study. We asked respondents to identify the sources and platforms that they consider major misinformation risks.
More than half of participants said online influencers/personalities are the major risk (57%), followed by activists (51%), foreign governments (49%), Australian political actors (48%), and the news media (43%).
The United States is the only country where the perception of national politicians as the greatest threat to misleading information is higher (57%) than the global average (47%).
Truth online: How to navigate?
Australians are also the most concerned with what is real and fake online. 74% of them said they were worried.
The Australians are particularly concerned about misinformation spreading on social media platforms, such as Facebook and TikTok.
As the number of Australians using social media to get their news is on the rise (26%, an eight-point increase since 2016), and TikTok as the fastest-growing social media platform (14%, a 13-point increase since 2020), concerns about misinformation are likely to remain a problem in Australia.
The problem lies not with the platform, but rather in who is attracting attention when it is used.
Australians tend to rely more on information provided by younger audiences, especially when it comes to TikTok.
More or less intervention?
It is difficult to determine what information is real or false online. The issue was brought to light during the debate about the controversial Fighting Misinformation and disinformation Bill of the federal government, which was eventually dropped late last year.
Many questions revolved around who decides what is the truth and who may be responsible for it. Is it up to digital platforms and their users to remove harmful or misleading content? Or do audiences need more media literacy education? Or both?
We asked people what they thought about removing offensive and harmful social media content.
A third (33%) of respondents believe that social media networks and video platforms like TikTok or YouTube do not remove enough offensive and harmful content.
Fewer people think (21%) that platforms remove too much.
The Australians are demanding more from social media companies.
Media literacy: a boost to media literacy
Data also suggest that improving news literacy in the community could be the key to solving the problem.
We asked people to tell us what they do if they find information that is suspicious. 39 percent of respondents said they use trusted news sources, official sites and search engines to fact-check.
There were significant differences between those who received news literacy training and those who did not.
People who have been trained on how news is produced are more likely to go to a reliable news source or an official website for verification.
Only 24% of respondents said they received such an education.
Data shows that people who have a news literacy education are more likely than others to fact-check news. They also pay more for news and are more interested in it.
It is possible that increasing users’ news literacy could have both economic and civic benefits.
There is no one solution for reducing misinformation on the internet, but this year’s results point to two areas that need further attention: increasing media literacy training to all Australians and requiring digital platforms to remove harmful and misleading content.
Sora Park is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), SBS, Creative Australia, and Boundless earth.
Ashleigh Haw received funding from the Herbert and Valmae Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry at the Australian National University, and The Australian Sociological Association.
Caroline Fisher received funding from the Australian Research Council, Google News Initiative and former Dept of Communication and Infrastructure. She also received funding through Judith Neilsen, Institute for Journalism and Ideas, Australian Communication and Media Authority and Australian Communication and Media Authority.
Kieran McGuinness received funding from Google News Initiative and Australian Communications and Media Authority.
