Global interest in news has shrunk from 63% in 2017 to 48% in 2023, a Tuesday report by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute revealed.
More than a third of the global population sometimes or frequently avoids news, according to the study, titled Digital News Report 2023. The study participants showed “high levels of selective avoidance” of topics such as the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis. This metric grew by 7 percentage points over the last six years, the report shows.
Only 40% of those surveyed said they trusted most news most of the time, showing a decline of two percentage points from the previous year. Traditional TV and print media consumption continues to fall, with online news access frequency and interest similarly diminishing, the report says.
More than half of the survey respondents, 56%, expressed concerns about telling the difference between real and fake news online. Among social media platforms, Facebook maintains the status of the leading source of news despite its long-term decline, with its usage for news dropping from 42% to 28% in the past seven years, according to the report. (RELATED: CNN’s Ratings Fall Below Newsmax)
Our Digital News Report 2023 is out today!
📊 46 markets
🌏 93,000+ respondents
📷 Cross-national analysis from @nicnewman @richrdfletcher @kirstenaeddy Craig T. Robertson @rasmus_kleis & our partners📱Explore now https://t.co/eQzzgPVWbh
🧵 Findings in thread #DNR23 pic.twitter.com/oisL2zLpYf— Reuters Institute (@risj_oxford) June 13, 2023
The use of TikTok and Instagram for news has risen, especially among younger users, with TikTok emerging as a fast-growing social network in the survey. The study shows that TikTok users are more likely to receive news from celebrities, influencers, or ordinary creators than from journalists or traditional news outlets.
Despite the observed decline in engagement on social media as a whole, platforms such as Twitter maintain a steady number of weekly users, suggesting these platforms are not being deserted, according to the report.