Half of all adults in the United Kingdom now use social media to keep up to date on the latest news.
A report for regulator Ofcom shows while TV remains the most popular platform for accessing the news its usage has slipped over the last year by 4 percentage points to 75%.
Over the same period the use of social media for news has risen from 44% to 49%. While use of Facebook for news has remained stable year on year, more people are using Twitter (from 14% to 16%), WhatsApp (from 10% to 14%) and Instagram (9% to 13%).
Magazines rated more favourably than any other news platform for quality, accuracy, trustworthiness and impartiality.
Yet despite their increased popularity as a source, Social Media is viewed the least favourably against these measures.
