Youth Rely on Digital Platforms, Need Media Literacy to Access Political Information

The current generation of young Americans has come of age at a time of monumental changes in how we acquire and consume information. The rise of social media and digital platforms has opened up new avenues for political information but also fractured the media landscape and supercharged concerns about misinformation. Given these shifts and challenges, the question of how and where to reach youth with the information they need to vote and participate in civic life has become a major concern.

During and after the 2024 election, there has been a lot of conversation about the role of digital platforms, podcasts, influencers, and other less traditional sources of information about voting and political issues. This new analysis, based on CIRCLE’s exclusive poll of youth (ages 18-34) conducted immediately after the 2024 election, confirms the major role that social media and digital platforms now play in young people’s political information diet. But our findings also add nuance to narratives about young people’s media consumption, and they challenge some increasingly common ideas about how to reach and engage young people.

The Youth Information Diet: News Websites and Social Media

Social media and digital platforms are playing a major role in how youth learn about elections and issues. When asked to name their top three sources of political information during the 2024 election cycle, 77% of youth chose at least one of these social media or digital platforms: X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, or “other social media.” Moreover, 16% named the above social networks or platforms as all three of their top political information sources.

However, news websites or news apps were still the biggest source of electoral information among all youth: 35% chose it as one of their top three sources. News sites/apps were followed by YouTube (29%), TikTok (25%), Instagram (24%), Facebook (23%), and major network TV news (21%) as young people’s main sources of information. Notably, most of these media types or platforms are heavily focused on video content, which speaks to the primacy that videos now have in young people’s information diet.

It is also notable that, despite the heavy emphasis on podcasts in some public narratives, only 11% of youth said they heard information about elections on podcasts or streaming radio. However, some young people may be watching video versions of podcasts on YouTube or seeing clips on social media platforms. 

Our data also finds some differences in political information sources by race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status that speak to how different youth are learning about and experiencing elections. In general, news websites/apps and podcasts are more prominent sources of information for white youth, Asian youth, and college-educated youth. Meanwhile, many social media networks and digital platforms play a bigger role for youth of color—especially Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram for Black youth, Instagram and Reddit for Asian youth, and TikTok for Latino youth. Youth without college experience are less likely to see political information on Facebook and TikTok, while youth who are more financially well-off are more likely to get political information on YouTube, Reddit, and podcasts.

In terms of gender differences, young women were more likely to see information about politics and the election on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, while young men were much more likely to get information on YouTube.

Youth Who Rely on Social Media Are Less Likely to Vote

There were also some major differences between youth who voted in 2024 and those who didn’t cast ballots. Young 2024 voters were significantly more likely to get political information on news websites (38% vs. 21% among young nonvoters), on X/Twitter (18% vs. 11%), on podcasts (13% vs. 6%), and on Reddit (13% vs. 8%). Youth who didn’t vote were more likely than those who cast ballots to get their political information on Facebook: 33% vs. 21%.

In addition to turnout, there were differences by 2024 vote choice. Young people who voted for former Vice President Harris were more likely to see information on Instagram, Reddit, and various news websites and apps. Youth who voted for Trump relied more on YouTube, X/Twitter, and Facebook.

Examining party preference and gender together underscores just how different some young people’s political media diets are. For example, 37% of young Republican men saw information on YouTube, compared to 20% of young Democratic women. Forty-three percent of young Republican women saw information on Facebook, compared to just 13% of young Democratic men. On the other hand, young Democratic women relied on TikTok (38%) far more than young Republican men (19%). And young Democratic men relied on news websites and apps (46%) and Reddit (25%) far more than other groups.

There were only small differences by party and gender among listeners of podcasts or streaming radio, which may challenge some notions about the influence of podcasts aimed at conservative young men.

We also asked youth about their motivations for voting and found that less than 1% said that their primary reason for voting was being convinced by an influencer or celebrity. While that doesn’t mean these figures didn’t play any role, it suggests we should be cautious in attributing major youth vote trends to figures like influencers and podcasters.

Media Literacy and Creation Linked to Voting

One of the major challenges of our fractured information landscape is understanding where information comes from and whether it can be trusted, which only intensifies the importance of media literacy. About half of young respondents in our poll say they take steps to find out who created the content they view online (49% agree/strongly agree), and 77% have, at some point, checked whether something they saw online is true. There were no meaningful differences by gender in employing these media literacy practices.

However, there are differences in media literacy by voter participation in 2024. More than half of youth who voted said they have worked to find out who created information, compared to just a third of youth who didn’t vote. Four out of five (81%) of young 2024 voters have checked if online information is true, compared to 65% of youth who didn’t vote in the most recent election.

This gap in media literacy is especially concerning since youth who didn’t vote are less reliant on news sites and more reliant on social media, where it’s both harder and more important to ascertain the truthfulness and source of information. It also tracks with what we know about inequities in opportunities to acquire media literacy skills, which we also see reflected here: youth without a college education or with poor financial situations are less likely to practice media literacy.

Beyond consuming and double-checking information, youth also create it. We’ve previously found that media creation and online engagement can be key to young people’s civic development and engagement.

We asked youth whether, in a span of 30 days before responding to the survey, they had taken some sort of action based on the political information they saw online. Twenty-nine percent of youth said that, after seeing political content, they had created their own online content about issues or politics at least sometimes—and 10% said they did it often or all the time. More than 1 in 5 youth sometimes, or more often, participated in online discussions or debates after seeing political content. Youth of color, especially Black youth, were more likely to engage in this type of digital discussion and media creation, which may be one positive consequence of their higher reliance on social media for political information. Young women were also more likely to create content about politics, though there was no difference by gender when it comes to participating in online discussions.

Interestingly, at least for the 2024 election, there was also no difference by voter participation: youth who cast ballots created content at a similar rate as those who didn’t vote. That may suggest that all youth were similarly interested in making their voices heard and found ways to do that online, but for some youth that also translated into having a voice at the ballot box, while for others it did not.

Conclusion: Inequities in Information Access and Media Literacy Shaping Youth Engagement

Our research provides more evidence for the fact that social media and digital platforms are playing a major role in young people’s political information diet. It also shows some notable divides in young people’s consumption of and engagement with political information from different sources. White, Asian, and more educated youth are relying on “traditional” news more—even if they’re seeing/hearing that news content on platforms like websites and podcasts. They are also being more careful about the information they consume. Both of those things are associated with a higher likelihood to vote.

On the other hand, Black and Latino youth are relying more on some platforms like TikTok. These youth, who have historically had lower turnout rates (and did so again in 2024) are also not employing media literacy skills as much—perhaps because they have not had the same opportunities to acquire them.

Our data on political information sources by gender, partisanship, and vote choice also confirms that some digital platforms are more easily reaching young Democratic women while others are reaching young Republican men. At the same time, our research suggests some narratives about the role of podcasts and influencers appear oversimplified or exaggerated, and challenges the idea that some of these media figures or platforms were a major source of information or motivation to vote.

Ultimately, we must keep investigating and addressing the educational and economic inequities in access to news and media literacy education. The research is clear that young people who rely on news for political information more than on social media, and who know how to verify the information they see, are more likely to vote. Equipping all youth with these tools is key to supporting a more diverse youth electorate and strengthening democracy