According to a global study conducted by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute, there has been a significant decrease in the number of people who show a strong interest in the news over the past six years. The report indicates that 48% of individuals worldwide are now very or extremely interested in the news, compared to 63% in 2017.
In the United Kingdom, the proportion is even lower than the global average, with only 43% of people showing a high level of interest in the news. The study also revealed that more than a third of individuals (36% globally) sometimes or often actively avoid consuming news.
The researchers behind the report noted that audiences are increasingly avoiding important news stories, such as the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis, as they try to protect their mental health and reduce exposure to depressing news.
The Digital News Report 2023 further highlighted the continued decline of traditional TV and print news media. Additionally, it found that online consumers are accessing news less frequently than before and are showing a diminishing level of interest. Trust in news has also seen a slight decline, with 40% of respondents stating that they trust most news most of the time, down two percentage points from the previous year.
In terms of trust in news brands, the BBC ranked as the most trusted news source in the UK, followed by Channel 4 and ITV. The study also highlighted the increasing concern among respondents about differentiating between real and fake news online, with 56% expressing worries about this issue, up by two percentage points.
Although Facebook remains the most important social media platform for news, its popularity has been declining over the long term. The number of people accessing news on Facebook each week has dropped from 42% to 28% over the past seven years. Facebook has also reduced the prominence of news in its news feed, with less than 3% of the feed now consisting of traditional news stories. This change has had negative consequences for organisations that relied on Facebook for traffic.
In contrast, social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have witnessed an increase in news consumption. TikTok has become the fastest-growing social network in terms of news usage, with one-fifth (20%) of 18-24 year-olds using it as a news source, up from 15% in the previous year. However, news on TikTok is primarily sourced from celebrities, influencers, and ordinary creators, rather than mainstream news outlets or journalists.
Rasmus Neilsen, the director of the Reuters Institute, noted that younger generations are moving away from traditional news discovery methods and gravitating towards personality-based, participatory, and personalized options provided by social media. Neilsen emphasized that younger audiences have little interest in conventional news offers that cater to older generations’ habits, interests, and values.
The study also revealed a decline in active participation, such as liking, sharing, and commenting on news articles on open social media platforms. In the UK, only approximately 10% of people are classified as “active participants,” and they tend to be predominantly male, older, politically engaged, and highly educated. This decline in active engagement may be attributed to the perception that online conversations on platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become increasingly toxic.
While there have been changes in sharing behavior and engagement time, the report concluded that social media platforms are not being abandoned. For example, although Twitter recently made headlines after being purchased by Elon Musk, the number of weekly users on the platform has remained relatively stable, and there is no evidence of a mass exodus to alternative platforms like Mastodon, as per Reuters’ findings.
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