YouTube narrowly ranked ahead of broadcast and cable TV news as a single source of political and election news among surveyed U.S. adults, according to a 2026 Center for the Creator Economy study at Syracuse University. The reported shares were 16.5% for YouTube and 16.1% for broadcast and cable TV news—not a decisive break, and not evidence that YouTube alone exceeds television and news sites combined.
What the study found
The Center for the Creator Economy at Syracuse University reported that YouTube was the most-used individual source in its survey for political and election news. Broadcast and cable TV news came just behind it, with print and online news sites close as well.
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| Source category | Share reported |
|---|---|
| YouTube | 16.5% |
| Broadcast and cable TV news | 16.1% |
| Print and online news sites | 15.7% |
These are the figures published by Syracuse University for its Center for the Creator Economy’s 2026 Flash Report. The narrow gaps matter: the result supports saying YouTube edged ahead of broadcast and cable TV news in this survey, not that it decisively displaced television as a source of political information. Syracuse University Today’s report
Who was surveyed—and what the numbers mean
The political-news ranking came from a demographically representative survey of 1,001 U.S. adults conducted through Prolific, as described by the university. It is a finding about those U.S. respondents, not a global estimate. The reported percentages should also be read as source-use comparisons, not as a measure of how much time people spent watching or reading each source. University announcement on the survey
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Individual platforms are not the same as grouped categories
YouTube’s 16.5% is a single-platform result. The same announcement says social platforms collectively accounted for 60%, compared with 32% for traditional sources. That broader comparison groups sources differently. It does not mean YouTube alone surpassed all television and news-site use combined; the announcement says combined TV and news sites outpaced YouTube nearly two to one. Syracuse University Today’s report
Use is different from trust
The survey also asked about confidence in independent news creators. The Center for the Creator Economy reported that 61% of respondents trusted a well-known independent news creator as much as a well-known professional journalist or major news organization on political topics. It reported that 86% said public corrections increase their trust in independent creators, while 79% still saw a meaningful difference between an independent creator and a journalist. These are trust-related responses, not additional measures of which source people use most. University announcement on the survey
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How this compares with international news-use data
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s 2026 Digital News Report offers a broader but different comparison. Its YouGov survey covered almost 100,000 respondents in 48 markets and found that social media and video networks together reached 54% as a source of news globally, compared with 52% for TV news and 51% for news websites and apps. The report’s authors caution that the two-point lead over TV should be interpreted carefully. These figures concern news generally across multiple markets; they do not replicate Syracuse’s U.S. political-news survey. Reuters Institute 2026 Digital News Report overview Reuters Institute report materials
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe Reuters Institute also reported that 30% identified social media and video networks as their main news source in 2026, up from 22% five years earlier. Its analysis says news-video habits vary by market and platform: YouTube’s news-video audience spans age groups more evenly than TikTok’s and Instagram’s, while younger viewers are more likely to use those latter services for news video. Reuters Institute 2026 Digital News Report overview Reuters Institute analysis of news-video use
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Why “TV” can mean a source or a device
Broadcast and cable news are sources; a television set is a device. Reuters Institute materials describe audiences watching news through video apps on internet-connected smart TVs. Some viewing can therefore shift from a linear broadcast to an app on a TV screen without people abandoning television hardware. The Syracuse ranking compares source categories, so it cannot establish how many respondents watched news on a television device. Reuters Institute analysis of news-video use
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What the headline does—and does not—show
- It shows: YouTube ranked narrowly ahead of broadcast and cable TV news among individual sources for political and election news in the surveyed U.S. adults.
- It does not show: YouTube alone beat television and news sites combined, or that people stopped watching news on TV devices.
- It adds context: separate international data point to growing use of social and video networks for news generally, but measure a different population and question.
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