News Consumption in the Changing Media Landscape 2026 Part I
This article is the first in a two-part series examining news consumption in Japan based on findings from the Reuters Digital News Report 2026, an international comparative survey. Comparing Japan with global trends, it highlights several key developments in the changing news environment.
Across the 48 markets surveyed, social media and video networks became the most widely used source of news for the first time, underscoring the continuing ‘platformisation’ of news consumption. Japan, however, recorded the lowest level of social media use among all markets surveyed. Even so, social media has become one of the main sources of news for younger people, pointing to a clear generational divide.
News video consumption is also shifting from news websites to social media platforms. In Japan, the preference for shorter videos is particularly strong. Use of AI chatbots for news is growing as well, with Japanese users especially likely to seek news summaries and assistance in making news stories easier to understand. Those who use AI for news tend to be more interested in news overall and report relatively high levels of trust in AI.
Yet demand for established news media has not disappeared entirely. News websites and apps, including those provided by news organisations and news aggregators, reach fewer users than television but retain their users more successfully. These findings suggest that an important challenge for established news media will be to use social media and AI as entry points that lead audiences to their own content.
MATSUBARA Kyoko
