The 2024 Digital News Report by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism reveals a shifting landscape in news consumption among Kenyans, with TikTok and YouTube emerging as increasingly popular platforms.
YouTube, owned by Google, saw an 8% increase in usage among news consumers, reaching 59%, while TikTok, the short-form video platform by ByteDance, experienced a 7% growth, reaching 36%.
Despite Facebook’s stagnation, it remains the top social network for news consumption, alongside WhatsApp, both at 60%.
Notably, X (formerly Twitter) saw a decline of 3% in usage, dropping to 37%. Instagram’s news consumption remained stable at 29%.
In terms of digital news media platforms, Citizen Digital ranked second in reach, following Tuko, with Nation, Opera News, and Kenyans.co.ke also among the top platforms.
Among legacy media platforms, Citizen TV led, followed by the Daily Nation newspaper, KTN, The Standard newspaper, and NTV.
The study highlights that respondents tended to be more affluent, aged between 18 and 50, and had higher levels of formal education.
These findings shed light on the evolving media landscape and the preferences of Kenyan news consumers.
“[They] are more likely to live in cities than the overall Kenyan population. Findings should not be taken to be nationally representative,” the research said.
video over text
Video is becoming increasingly prominent as a tool for news dissemination worldwide, particularly among younger audiences.
According to research conducted on a sample of 95,000 individuals across 47 countries, YouTube is utilized for news by nearly a third (31%) of respondents each week. WhatsApp follows closely behind, with approximately a fifth (21%) using it for news consumption.
Additionally, TikTok has emerged as a significant platform for news, with 13% of respondents using it, surpassing Twitter (10%) for the first time in terms of news usage.
“Short news videos are accessed by two-thirds (66%) of our sample each week, with longer formats attracting around half (51%). The main locus of news video consumption is online platforms (72%) rather than publisher websites (22%), increasing the challenges around monetisation and connection,” the report said.
However, researchers found a rise in selective news avoidance. Around four in ten (39%) respondents said they sometimes or often avoid the news, a 3 per cent increase from last year.
“In a separate question, we find that the proportion that say they feel ‘overloaded’ by the amount of news these days has grown substantially (+11%) since 2019 when we last asked this question,” the research notes.
