HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) – Despite the growing importance of social media, trust in news in Germany remains stable, according to the “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026”. 46 percent of adult Internet users said they could usually trust the majority of news. Compared to 2025, the proportion is almost unchanged and at the same time slightly higher than the values for 2023 and 2024. Germany is one of the few countries in which trust has not recently declined, said co-author Julia Behre of the German Press Agency.
At the same time, social media is becoming increasingly important as a source of news: 36 percent of adult Internet users in Germany come into contact with news there in a normal week. Among 18 to 24 year olds the proportion is 60 percent. For 44 percent of this age group, social media is now the most important source of news.
However, co-author Sascha Hölig does not see any reason for concern. “Users have increased, but not those who rely solely on social media as a news source,” he said. Social media is generally used in addition to other news offerings. “So I wouldn’t want to prophesy doom now.”
AI chatbots have so far only played a minor role in news consumption. Five percent of adult internet users
users in Germany said they had one in the past week
Having used chatbot to find out about news.
Around 2,000 people per country were surveyed for the report in 2026. Overall, the fourteenth iteration of the study is based on the answers of almost 100,000 respondents from 48 countries on six continents./svv/DP/zb
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