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People watch as others drive away from the Palisades Fire on Jan. 7, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, California. (Mario Tama\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nPeople watch as others drive away from the Palisades Fire on Jan. 7, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, California. (Mario Tama\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Pew Knight Initiative<\/p>\n
The Pew-Knight Initiative supports new research on how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities.<\/p>\n
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Knight Foundation is a social investor committed to supporting informed and engaged communities. Learn more ><\/a><\/p>\n When Americans look to learn more about a breaking news event, they turn to a variety of sources. This mirrors the fragmented way that people get news and information<\/a> more broadly these days.<\/p>\n Americans turn to news organizations, search engines and social media to learn more about breaking news<\/p>\n % of U.S. adults who typically go to __ first to get more information when a breaking news event happens<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Dec. 8-14, 2025.<\/p>\n PEW-KNIGHT INITIATIVE<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on X<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook<\/p>\n Americans turn to news organizations, search engines and social media to learn more about breaking news<\/p>\n % of U.S. adults who typically go to __ first to get more information when a breaking news event happens<\/p>\n U.S. adultsTheir preferred news organization36%A search engine28%Social media19%Friends, family or acquaintances5%AI chatbots1%Some other source5%Doesn\u2019t look for more information5%<\/p>\n Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Dec. 8-14, 2025.<\/p>\n PEW-KNIGHT INITIATIVE<\/p>\n ChartData<\/p>\n Download ImageShare<\/p>\n When a breaking news event happens, 36% of U.S. adults say they typically turn first to their preferred news organization to get more information, according to a 2025 Pew Research Center survey from the Pew-Knight Initiative<\/a>. Another 28% look to search engines like Google or Bing, and 19% make social media their first destination. A smaller share (5%) usually asks friends, family or acquaintances for more information.<\/p>\n In a similar question from 2018, a slim majority of Americans (54%) said they turned to their preferred news organization when they wanted to learn more about a breaking news event. The shares of U.S. adults who said they turned first to search engines (15%) and social media (9%) were both lower than they are today. Similar shares in both survey years said they turn to people in their lives.<\/p>\n About this research<\/p>\n This analysis from the\u00a0Pew-Knight Initiative<\/a>\u00a0looks at where Americans turn to first to get more information about breaking news events when they happen.<\/p>\n Why we did this<\/p>\n Pew Research Center regularly seeks to understand the platforms Americans use<\/a> to get news and how individual news consumers engage with the information environment. We asked where people get information about breaking news in a larger\u00a0Pew-Knight Initiative study<\/a> that explores how Americans think about their role in the news environment.<\/p>\n Learn more about\u00a0Pew Research Center<\/a>\u00a0and our\u00a0research on news habits and media<\/a>.<\/p>\n How we did this<\/p>\n We surveyed 3,560 U.S. adults from Dec. 8 to 14, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel<\/a>. The survey represents the views of the full U.S. adult population.<\/p>\n This analysis also includes findings from a nationally representative survey conducted from Feb. 22 to March 4, 2018. The GfK Group conducted that survey in English and Spanish using KnowledgePanel, its nationally representative online research panel. Learn more about this survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n The question in this analysis had different response options in 2018 and 2025, so comparisons should be made with caution. Four options appeared in both surveys: preferred news organization; search engines; social media; and friends, family and acquaintances. \u201cNews aggregating website or apps (such as Google News, Apple News or Flipboard)\u201d was an option in 2018 but not in 2025. We added the options \u201cAI chatbots (such as ChatGPT or Gemini),\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t look for more information\u201d and \u201cSome other source\u201d in 2025. We also added Google and Bing as examples of search engines in the 2025 survey.<\/p>\n Here are our survey questions<\/a>, the detailed responses<\/a> and the methodology<\/a>. The 2018 version of the survey question in this analysis can be found in this topline<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is a Pew Research Center analysis from the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Find related reports online at\u00a0https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/pew-knight\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reflecting the evolving news environment, some other response options in the two surveys were not the same. We included an option for news aggregation websites or apps (such as Google News, Apple News or Flipboard) in 2018 but not 2025. In 2025, we added three response options: AI chatbots (such as ChatGPT or Gemini), \u201cSome other source\u201d and \u201cI don\u2019t look for more information.\u201d<\/p>\n Relatively few Americans selected these options: 1% said they go first to AI chatbots for more information about breaking news, while 5% each consult another source or say they don\u2019t look for more information.<\/p>\n The small share who look to AI chatbots for more information about breaking news reflects the fact that relatively few Americans say they use AI chatbots for news<\/a> in general. However, those who turn to search engines for this information still might see AI-generated summaries<\/a>.<\/p>\n Age differences<\/p>\n Where Americans turn first to get more information about breaking news events varies widely by age.<\/p>\n Where Americans go for breaking news varies by age<\/p>\n % of U.S. adults who typically go to __ first to get more information when a breaking news event happens<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Dec. 8-14, 2025.<\/p>\n PEW-KNIGHT INITIATIVE<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on X<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook<\/p>\n Where Americans go for breaking news varies by age<\/p>\n % of U.S. adults who typically go to __ first to get more information when a breaking news event happens<\/p>\n Ages 18-2930-4950-6465+Their preferred news organization14%27%47%59%A search engine41%33%24%15%Social media31%24%14%6%Friends, family or acquaintances6%5%4%4%AI chatbots2%2%<1%<1%Some other source1%4%6%9%Doesn\u2019t look for more information5%5%5%7%<\/p>\n Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Dec. 8-14, 2025.<\/p>\n PEW-KNIGHT INITIATIVE<\/p>\n ChartData<\/p>\n Download ImageShare<\/p>\n Based on the 2025 survey, Americans ages 65 and older are around four times as likely as adults ages 18 to 29 to say they turn to their preferred news organization for this (59% vs. 14%).<\/p>\n By contrast, younger adults are more likely to say they turn to search engines and social media for breaking news. For example, 31% of adults under 30 say they turn to social media first to get more information about breaking news events. Just 6% of Americans 65 and older say the same.<\/p>\n This aligns with a previous Center study<\/a> showing that the share of younger adults who get news from social media is much higher than the share of older adults who do so. Among adults ages 18 to 29, 76% say they get news from social media at least sometimes, compared with 28% of adults ages 65 and older.<\/p>\n Younger adults are also more likely than older Americans to trust the information they get from social media<\/a>. And adults ages 18 to 29 are now about equally likely to trust information they get from social media and from national news organizations.<\/p>\n Note: Here are our survey questions<\/a>, the detailed responses<\/a> and the methodology<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People watch as others drive away from the Palisades Fire on Jan. 7, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, California.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-542790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Chart\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/chart-293908-1774370659.png\")
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