The way people consume news is changing, and that shift is especially pronounced among Gen Z. This generation has never known a world without smartphones or social media, and that has deeply shaped how they consume news. It has also made them the most difficult demographic for the mainstream media to reach.
As members of Gen Z ourselves, we set out to understand what makes us different: what motivates or discourages us from reading the news, how we actually consume it, and why. Drawing on existing research alongside interviews with peers, we found three patterns that set us apart from older generations.
A Preference For Influencers
We naturally gravitate toward familiar platforms over TV or news sites. The Pew Research Center found that 76% of us get news on social media. What surprised us was that this news rarely comes from accounts run by major outlets such as Fox or NBC, and instead, many peers turn to news “influencers.” “I trust individuals with personal stakes more” than mainstream outlets, which “have specific agendas,” shared Tamar, 22. She follows “individuals who live in the places affected…not necessarily primary sources, but subject matter experts who cite their sources.” Gen Z’s music and shopping trends already come from influencers, and now our news sources are following.
Following the News is Not a Civic Responsibility
Gen Z no longer sees reading the news as an obligation like many older generations do, but rather as a helpful addition to our entertainment. Reuters frames this as a gap in values: Traditional outlets treat news as what you should know, while young consumers expect it to be interesting or fun to know. The impact of that value shift is apparent in how limited our news consumption actually is. “I would say I read, but it’s short form,” said Tamar. Lauren, 29, described her habits around news videos: “I’ll normally watch it, like, 25 seconds. Nothing crazy.” And Diba, 23, gets her news “more like a podcast… in between” other things. News is being compressed to fit the same bite-sized attention span as everything else we consume.
Fake News Does Not Fool Us – And Sometimes Leads Us To Check the Facts
This change in consumption does not mean that we take what we see at face value. We are skeptical of misinformation, but we are not fooled by it. Reuters expected a perilous trust crisis among our generation. Instead, they found something more similar to a nuisance. Participants of the study described actively cross-checking sources instead of being passively misinformed, and a familiar byline such as the New York Times was often enough to signal credibility. “You can’t really go off of one news source,” said Diba, 23, who checks multiple outlets before trusting a story. Ariel, 19, takes a similar approach: “My two favorite things to do when looking for news are look at a source that politically aligns with my beliefs and then a contrasting perspective.” Social media does not necessarily make us lazy consumers, but does possibly improve our fact checking abilities.
Overinformed and Burnt Out
However, all of this scrolling and fact checking comes at a cost. News avoidance and burnout are catching up with us. Globally, 42% of people now avoid the news at least sometimes, up from 29% in 2017, and trust in news has hit a record low of 37% (Reuters) A 2025 UNICEF-backed study found Gen Z consumes news more than any other content type; yet 6 in 10 feel overwhelmed by current events. We are tuning out because we’re saturated. Dorit, 24, was involved in advocacy work in college before getting “really burnt out” and deleting social media, taking the news with it. Lauren put it plainly: “my life is so much happier when I have no idea what’s going on.”
Gen Z has a great challenge to face as we navigate the truths and lies of the information constantly thrown at us. However, our minds have been adapting to this new landscape of consumption, and that adaptability and creativity may be our greatest strength.
