According to the latest Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute, the news consumption trend in Kenya is a significant one. A staggering 94% of Kenyans use short-form content for news consumption on a weekly basis. This trend is not unique to Kenya, as it is also observed in Nigeria at 92%, South Africa at 82%, and Morocco at 80%.

TikTok is still most popular among younger age groups. Its overall use remains similar to last year, but the percentage of people using it for news has increased to 13% across all markets and to 23% for those aged 18–24. In Thailand, over a third of the population now uses TikTok for news every week (39%), and in Kenya (36%). In Indonesia, more than a quarter access news on TikTok (29%), and in Peru, it’s a quarter or more (27%).

In the past, Kenya has expressed concern about TikTok compared to other popular networks such as X or WhatsApp, which is the most used network for news. The app has been labelled “a serious threat to the cultural and religious values of Kenya” in a petition to parliament after being implicated in the sharing of adult content, misinformation, and hate speech. One reason for TikTok’s higher score may be that most of the content is posted by people who are not personally known. On the other hand, WhatsApp posts tend to come from a close social circle, which is likely to be more trusted. Paradoxically, this could mean that information spread on WhatsApp carries more danger because defences may be lower.

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The percentage of the survey respondents who expressed concern about distinguishing real information from fake information on the internet has increased by 3 percentage points from 56% to 59%. Looking at specific regions, the highest levels of concern are in Africa (75%), while lower levels of concern are observed in much of Northern and Western Europe (e.g., Norway at 45% and Germany at 42%).

On the other hand, another interesting fact is the proportion of people who trust most news most of the time. Once again, this trend is led by Kenya, with 64% of people believing most of the information they consume. This is followed by Nigeria at 61%, South Africa at 57%, and Morocco at 31%.

Feature image: Photo by Qim Manifester on Unsplash