Interest for news lower than before across globe: Report
Interest in news and overall news consumption has declined considerably in many countries, said a recent report.
According to the 2022 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, trust in news is falling in nearly half the countries surveyed, with significant proportions of the public, especially younger age groups, beginning to turn away from the news.
"Today, less than half of our sample (47%) say they are very or extremely interested in news compared with 67% in 2015," it read.
The eleventh edition of our Digital News Report is based on data from six continents and 46 markets.
The report further highlighted that news consumption is increasingly happening via social media platforms such as TikTok rather than traditional media, said the joint survey of Reuters Institute and Oxford Institute.
Meanwhile, the proportion of news consumers who say they avoid news, often or sometimes, has increased sharply across countries.
In the five countries surveyed after the war in Ukraine started, the researchers saw television news is relied on most heavily while countries closest to the fighting, such as Germany and Poland, saw the biggest increases in consumption.
Facebook remains the most-used social network for news.
While the majority of people across countries remain engaged and use the news regularly, many participants also increasingly chose to ration or limit their exposure to it completely or to certain types of news.
According to the report, many younger audiences, and less educated groups, have trouble in understanding journalism as currently practised.
In countries such as Australia, the United States, and Brazil, around 15% of younger avoiders say they find news hard to follow.