YouTube in Africa offers a new kind of news

Growing numbers of people get their news via videos on social networks such as TikTok, Instagram and—above all—YouTube. That is particularly true in the global south—and especially in Africa (see chart), according to research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, a research centre and think-tank at Oxford University. More people in Kenya get their news from YouTube than those in any other country surveyed by the institute. “The trends in media consumption which people say are coming to the West are already well under way in the global south,” notes Nic Newman of the Reuters Institute.