A new report has revealed that four in ten people feel that they are “worn out” by the amount of news these days, which has resulted in a surge of ‘news avoidance’.
The annual Reuters Digital News Report asked respondents what they thought of the statement, “I am worn out by the amount of news there is these days”.
Those who felt they ‘Strongly agree’ or ‘Tend to agree’ represented 40% of respondents, with women being the most overloaded: 45% agreeing versus 36% of men.
“For those suffering from news fatigue, one solution is simply to avoid the news,” the report reads, as it found that the number of people “often or sometimes” avoiding the news has grown “considerably”.
In 2022, 41% of respondents said that they did this, which was up nearly 10% on 2019. However, in 2023 that number fell to 34%.
This year, 44% (+10%) said that they avoid the news “often or sometimes” which the report considers is “possibly the result of a succession of gloomy national and international news stories”.
The number of people who “occasionally” avoid the news and who “never” avoid the news is down, the latter down from a 2017-peak of 41% to this year’s 24% – a drop of 17%.
Meanwhile public trust in the news media has fallen yet again, the latest study to show a decline in Ireland’s relationship with its journalists.
Respondents were asked to what degree they agreed with the statement “I think you can trust most news most of the time”. The results revealed that just 46% of the public agreed, down from a 2021 pandemic-high of 53%.
The category of highest trust (‘Strongly agree’) has remained unchanged at 6% since 2021, but the next highest (‘Tend to agree’) continued its fall, from 41% in 2023 to 40% this year.
Scepticism towards the news has grown in recent years, with the ‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Tend to disagree’ categories combining to 26%, which is up by 3% since 2021.
The report shows that levels of trust remain relatively consistent across respondents of different political affiliations, with the ‘centre’ category (consisting of ‘slightly left of centre, centre, and slightly right of centre’ response categories) being the most trusting at 49% agreement with the same statement.
It only varies slightly among those with stronger affiliations, dropping to 46% for those who are ‘fairly/very right wing’, and dropping to 45% for those who are ‘very/fairly left wing’.
“Whether they have high journalistic standards,” was one of the two foremost factors influencing respondents on which news outlets to trust, along with “Whether they are transparent about how the news is made,” both at 76%.
“Whether they represent people like me fairly,” and “Whether they are biassed” came in joint-third and fourth with 70% each.
Despite a continuing decline in trust, the Irish public maintains a high interest in the news, with 88% of respondents engaged with the news to varying degrees, which is higher than to be found in the UK, the US or the European average.
As with trust in the media, 2021 represents a pandemic-peak when it comes to how interested people are in the news, as 70% of people surveyed said they were ‘extremely’ or ‘very interested’ in news. In 2024, this has dropped to 53%, up from 52% last year.
For the first time, online news overtook all other sources as the main source of news.
The category of ‘Online’ (which excludes social media and blogs) in 2024 has overtaken TV, with one in three respondents 33% saying that ‘online’, which includes websites and apps, is the main way they access news content.
The decline in ‘TV’ (31%) as the main source of news since its 2021 peak of 41% continues, but it is now below the pre-Covid level of 32-34%.
‘Social Media’ is at its highest level yet (21%), coming in below ‘Online’ and ‘TV’ as a news source, while ‘Radio’ has remained largely stable and is at the same level as in 2017 at 12%.
‘Print’ has fallen again to its low of 2022 and is the main source of news for just 3% of people.