Digital News Report 2025: How Serbia gets informed

The Digital News Report 2025, the most comprehensive global study of media habits conducted by the Reuters Institute, shows that people in 48 countries – including Serbia – are increasingly abandoning traditional news sources and turning to digital platforms, video formats, and social media as their main channels for following the news. Key findings of the report include the dominance of video content, the growing role of social media in daily news consumption, and an increasing reliance by younger generations on artificial intelligence and chatbots for finding and filtering news, while television remains an important source of information for older populations. 

According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, Serbia ranks at the very top in Europe when it comes to relying on social media for news consumption, as many as 67% of respondents use them. 

The most used platform for news is Facebook, which 45% of respondents use for news consumption, and 70% use it in general. It is followed by YouTube (33% for news, 75% overall usage) and Instagram (33% for news, 62% overall). Interestingly, TikTok - typically associated with short and entertaining content - ranks as the fourth most common source of news (21%), especially among younger users. 

Mobile phones are the primary device for accessing news, while the use of desktop computers and print media is declining. 

One of the most striking findings of this year's report concerns trust in the media. In Serbia, trust in the news stands at just 27%, one of the lowest levels among the 48 countries surveyed. At the same time, 58% of respondents expressed concern about misinformation.