The American news landscape remains polarized by political party identification, and to some extent age, with few news sources both used and trusted widely among Democrats and Republicans.
Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to trust the news in general, as well as to trust most specific major outlets included in YouGov's 2025 poll of trust in media. Democrats and Republicans find common ground on sources for financial news, but hold vastly different opinions on most other news sources, including the two used by the most Americans: CNN and Fox News.
In our latest poll, we ask Americans about each of 52 news sources, including their use of it in the past month and its trustworthiness. In doing so, we revisit questions asked on similar surveys in 2024, 2023, and 2022.
The results reflect American views on the news media and on specific outlets — including opinions of many people who haven't gotten news from the outlets any time recently. Some news organizations are used more heavily or elicit opinions from more Americans, and these outlets are more likely to sit at the top and bottom of these charts.
The most and least trusted news sources
Like in last year's survey, we asked Americans in 2025 whether they find news from each of 52 outlets very trustworthy, trustworthy, untrustworthy, very untrustworthy, or neither trustworthy nor untrustworthy. Using these results, we calculate each outlet's net trust score – that is, how much more likely Americans are to say the outlet's news is trustworthy or very trustworthy than untrustworthy or very untrustworthy.
By this measure, The Weather Channel persists as the most trusted news source, as it was in 2022, 2023, and 2024: Americans are 49 percentage points more likely to call The Weather Channel trustworthy as they are to call it untrustworthy — up from +43 last year. Like last year, the Weather Channel is followed by two public broadcasters: the BBC (+26) and PBS (+25).
By far the least-trusted outlet included in the poll is the National Enquirer (-37, better than -44 last year, when it also ranked last for trust). The outlets trusted least besides the Enquirer are, like last year, Infowars (-15) and Breitbart News (-7).
Average net trust in news outlets increased slightly this year — to +8 from +4 in 2024 — after a move in the opposite direction last year from 2023. Overall, trust in outlets included in each of the last four years has changed little — as have their relative positions for trust.
Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say they trust the news in general, and the same is true for trust in most specific news outlets included in the poll. For 44 of the 52 outlets asked about (85%), a greater share of Democrats trust than distrust them. That's true for only 21 outlets among Republicans (40%).
While both Democrats and Republicans generally are more likely to trust certain television news sources over print or online outlets, they differ on which TV sources they place their trust in. Democrats have the most trust in PBS, BBC, and NBC, while Republicans particularly trust Fox News, Fox Business Channel, and Newsmax.
There is little overlap in the sources that Democrats and Republicans find most trustworthy — other than The Weather Channel, which is more trusted than not on both sides of the aisle. 27% of news outlets surveyed have net positive trust among members of both parties, up from 13% last year, ahead of a presidential election. Many outlets with net positive trust among people in both parties are focused — at least in name — on the economy or financial news: Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Business Insider, and the Economist.
There is even less partisan overlap on the specific news outlets Americans distrust. Only one outlet is considered more untrustworthy than trustworthy by both Democrats and Republicans: the National Enquirer.
CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are the most politically polarizing outlets. Net trust in CNN is 80 points higher among Democrats than among Republicans, and net trust in MSNBC is 77 points higher. Net trust in Fox News is 76 points higher among Republicans than among Democrats.
In addition to having more trust in CNN, Democrats also place far more trust than Republicans do in ABC (75-point difference in net trust), CBS (73 points), NBC (71 points), PBS (71 points), and NPR (65 points).
Beyond their higher trust in Fox News, Republicans have higher net trust than Democrats do in Fox Business (66-point difference), OAN (36 points), and Newsmax (36 points).
Among Democrats, average net trust in the outlets asked about in the survey increased 3 percentage points from last year, to +28 from +25. The largest increases in net trust among Democrats are for Al Jazeera (10-point increase in net trust), Bloomberg (10-point increase), and the Associated Press (8-point increase).
There was a 7-point increase in Republicans' average net trust in the outlets surveyed, to -1 from -8 last year. The outlets with the biggest increases in net trust among Republicans are Fox News, CNN, Yahoo News, Comedy Central, MSNBC, ESPN, The Weather Channel, and the Los Angeles Times — by between 12 and 18 points each.
People who have recently used each outlet for news are more likely than Americans overall to consider it to be trustworthy. For outlets which 100 or more respondents say they have used in the past month, average net trust among recent users of each outlet is 55 points higher than average net trust among all Americans. Among the outlets for which this gap is largest are OAN (+79 net trust among recent users vs. -2 for Americans overall), Al Jazeera (+75 vs. -3), and Fox Business Channel (+77 vs. +2). These differences could have several causes, including that people tend not to use news they don't trust and that users are more familiar with news sources' trustworthiness.
Even though many Americans consume news from social media — 76% named at least one of the platforms listed on the survey as a source for their news in the past months — most specific platforms are viewed by more Americans as untrustworthy than trustworthy. YouTube (+12 net trust) and Linkedin (+4) are regarded slightly more highly than others. The least trusted social media platforms asked about are TikTok (-26), Facebook (-22), and Snapchat (-21).
Truth Social and X are the most politically polarizing platforms: Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to trust each of them. Among Republicans, Truth Social is tied with YouTube as the most trusted social media platform, but among Democrats, it ranks as the least trusted. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to trust most other social media platforms.
Trust in news on social media platforms has increased over the past year, to an average of -10 across platforms from an average of -16 in 2024. This is largely due to increasing trust among Republicans; average net trust rose 15 points, to -3 from -17 in 2024. Republican trust has risen most in YouTube, X, Facebook, and Instagram. The largest shift among Democrats has been on their trust in news from X, which is now -35, down from -20 in 2024 and from -5 in 2023, when it was Twitter.
Americans are divided by age far more for their trust in news from social media than for their trust in other sources of news. Adults under 45 are more trusting of news on social media platforms than older adults are — especially news from TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, and X. The higher levels of trust in X and Truth Social among younger adults is striking because older adults are more likely than younger ones to be Republicans.
Where Americans get their news
Americans are most likely to say that in the past month, they've gotten news from social media (61%) or television (60%). The popularity of these formats is split by age: Adults under 45 are most likely to have used social media for news, while older adults are most likely to have relied on television.
45% of Americans say that in the past month they've heard about news from a friend, family member, or acquaintance. News websites are also common ways to receive news (45%), followed by radio (29%), news apps (29%), and search engines (28%). 13% have used print newspapers for news in the past month, including 16% of Americans 45 and older and 10% of younger adults. 4% have used AI chatbots for news.
In the last year, the share of Americans who say they've gotten news from social media in the past month has risen 7 points, with a similar increase among both younger and older Americans. Republican use of social media as a source for news rose significantly, by 14 points. Among Democrats, there have been increases in the shares saying they've gotten news from every source asked about, with the biggest increases for news from friends, family, or acquaintances (an increase of 12 points) and from news websites (10 points).
Of the 52 outlets asked about in the survey, Americans are most likely to say that in the past month, they've gotten news from Fox News (40%) and CNN (36%). ABC (30%), CBS (30%), and NBC (30%) also rank highly in news usage. The New York Times is the most-read news source with a print component: 24% say they've used the Times for news in the past month. Yahoo News is the most likely to have been used among exclusively online news sources: 19% have used it. Each of the 45 other news sources included in the survey were used by fewer than one in five Americans.
Republicans' news sources are somewhat more consolidated than Democrats'. 61% of Republicans say they've used Fox News in the past month — up from 54% last year — while less than 30% of Republicans say the same about any other news source.
Democrats use a wider variety of outlets in the poll: A majority have recently used CNN (55%) and one-third or more have used each of ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, BBC, and MSNBC.
Adults under 45 are somewhat more likely than older Americans to say they've gotten news from the New York Times, CNN, USA Today, and Forbes, and less likely to have gotten it from ABC, NBC, CBS, and The Associated Press.
There has been little change over the past year in the shares ofAmericans who say they have recently used most specific outlets included in the poll as sources for news in the last month. Among Democrats, there has been a 10-point increase in the share saying they've used BBC in the past month and an 8-point increase in the share who say they've used the AP. Fox News usage increased 7 points among both Democrats and Republicans. And use of CNN increased 6 points among Democrats and 8 points among Republicans.
Net trust generally is higher in outlets with more users, consistent with our finding that people have higher trust in news sources they've recently used. Deviating somewhat from that pattern, The Weather Channel, PBS, the BBC, and the Wall Street Journal all have higher net trust relative to peers with similarly sized audiences, while net trust is lower relative to usage for CNN and Fox News.
More Americans say they've gotten news from social media networks Facebook (44%) or YouTube (41%) than from any of the individual news outlets polled. (Some of the news they got from social media might have originated in the news outlets.) Younger Americans are especially likely to rely on the social media outlets asked about: 50% of adults under 45 say they've used YouTube for news in the past month, compared to only 34% of older adults. One-quarter (26%) of Americans have seen news in the past month on X, 25% on Instagram, and 19% on TikTok.
News-aggregators — especially Google News — also are a common way to consume news. 37% say they've gotten news from Google News in the past month, 15% from Apple News, and 12% from MSN. 8% say they've consumed news from ChatGPT, including 14% of adults under 45. Twice as many Americans say they got news from ChatGPT than from an AI chatbot.
Compared to last year, more Republicans now say they've used X (an increase of 8 points), Instagram (8-point increase), and Facebook (7-point increase) as sources for news in the past month. And while Democrats' trust in X has decreased significantly in the past year, their likelihood of having used the platform for news has not changed much. Bluesky, which wasn't asked about in last year's poll, has been used in the last month as a news source by 9% of Democrats and 2% of Republicans.
How news makes Americans feel
While about half (53%) of Americans say that consuming news generally makes them feel informed, other common reactions to the news are more likely to be negative than positive. Between 32% and 43% say that consuming news makes them feel either angry, anxious, cynical, overwhelmed, or depressed. Fewer than one in five say it makes them feel more motivated, entertained, or hopeful.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that consuming news makes them feel hopeful. Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely than Republicans to say it causes anxiety, depression, anger, and a feeling of being overwhelmed.
Interested in learning more?
Explore and download results from our survey below.
Editor's Note: While several of the media outlets or social media networks are YouGov clients, no client had any involvement in this poll or analysis.
Related:
- Trust in Media 2024: Which news sources Americans trust — and which they think lean left or right
- Trust in Media 2023: What news outlets do Americans trust most for information?
- Trust in Media 2022: Where Americans get their news and who they trust for information
See the results from this YouGov poll conducted May 11 - 12, 2025
— David Montgomery contributed to this article
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 2,211 U.S. adult citizens from May 11 - 12, 2025. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Image: Getty
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