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How TikTok Became the Gen Z News Authority
When Gen Z wants the truth they scroll
For more than 100 years, “all the news that’s fit to print” has been the slogan for the New York Times newspaper, which promises its readers the most important headlines.
Members of Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012), however, are more likely to trust “all the news that’s fit to view” — in 60 seconds or less, on their new favorite news source: TikTok.
What makes TikTok such an alluring source of news for this generation?
TikTok’s popularity, by the numbers
More people than ever are turning to TikTok for both their entertainment and their news.
According to information published by DataReportal, TikTok boasted at least 1.59 billion active users around the world in January 2025. Of that number, the same source found that 136 million Americans were active users of the platform; making the United States the largest audience for the app. (These studies do not count Chinese users of the platform. China’s version of TikTok is named Douyin, although both platforms are owned by the ByteDance company.)
In America, the Pew Research Center has extensively studied how Americans use TikTok, both in general, and specifically to view…
