For many Nigerians, the first place to hear about breaking news is no longer a television bulletin or the morning newspaper.
It might be a TikTok video.
A 60-second clip can explain a political development, break down a court case or react to a major event before many people have had the chance to visit a news website. And Nigeria’s rapidly growing digital audience is helping to push this change.
According to the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026, Nigeria has one of Africa’s largest and most vibrant media markets, with a highly digital audience and a fast-growing social media ecosystem. The report also notes that digital-born news brands are particularly growing among younger audiences.
The numbers behind Nigeria’s internet growth help explain why.
DataReportal estimates that Nigeria had 109 million internet users at the end of 2025, while there were 47.8 million social media user identities. TikTok’s advertising data showed a potential reach of 47.8 million adults aged 18 and above in Nigeria by late 2025Â up 43.4% from the end of 2024.
But it is not simply about numbers.
TikTok presents information differently from traditional news. Instead of asking people to search for a story, the story appears in their feed. A creator can take a complicated issue and explain it using familiar language, humour, visuals and personal commentary.
That style has proved particularly attractive to younger audiences.
Across Africa, creators are increasingly acting as informal news explainers, translating complicated political and social issues into short, accessible videos. The Guardian recently highlighted how creators in countries including Nigeria are reshaping the way younger audiences encounter current affairs online.
Traditional news has not disappeared, however.
Television, radio, newspapers and established news websites still play an important role in Nigeria. The Reuters Institute describes the country’s media environment as a hybrid one, where legacy media and digital-born outlets operate alongside each other.
The bigger change may be where people discover the news.
Someone may see a story first on TikTok, discuss it on WhatsApp and only later look for confirmation from a recognised news organisation.
That creates both an opportunity and a problem.
Social platforms can make news faster, more accessible and easier to understand. But speed can also mean that an inaccurate claim spreads before journalists have verified it. A creator may also be offering commentary rather than independently reported information, even when the video looks like a news report.
Globally, the shift is becoming harder for traditional media to ignore. The Reuters Institute’s 2026 report says social media and video networks have become the most widely used sources of news globally.
For Nigerian news organisations, the lesson may not be that TikTok is replacing journalism.
It is that the audience is changing where it expects journalism to meet it.
The challenge now is to combine the speed and accessibility people want from social media with the verification, context and accountability that credible journalism requires.
Because in an internet where anyone can become a news source, knowing who to trust may become just as important as knowing what happened.
