by Kevin Burton
People worldwide are unplugging from the news, according to a Reuters Institute study.
We just don’t want to hear it.
I grew up with the Dayton Daily News on the doorstep every morning and the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite a regular part of the early evening. Local news, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, I wanted all that and more. I was up-to-date on events.
Now the news depresses me, both because I am afraid what I hear and read is not true and because I am afraid it is true. So I avoid it, and I’m not alone, according to a BBC report.
“A report by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute says 48 percent of people around the world are very or extremely interested in the news, down from 63 percent in 2017,” the BBC reports. “More than a third of people (36 percent) worldwide say they sometimes or often actively avoid the news.”
“The number of people taking a strong interest in the news has dropped by around a quarter in the last six years, the study suggests.”
“The authors of the institute’s report said there was evidence that audiences ‘continue to selectively avoid important stories such as the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis as they cut back on depressing news and look to protect their mental health.’”
“The Digital News Report 2023 also concluded that traditional TV and print news media are continuing to decline, while ‘online consumers are accessing news less frequently than in the past and are also becoming less interested.’”
“Four in 10 people say they trust most news most of the time, down two percentage points compared with last year.
In the UK, the BBC was the most trusted news source, the BBC reported. Meanwhile print news in the United States is cratering.
“Estimated revenue from periodical publishing dropped from $40.2 billion in 2002 to $23.9 billion in 2020,” according to the US Census Bureau. “There was a 20.7 percent revenue decline from 2002 to 2010, and a 25.0 percent decrease from 2010 to 2020.”
The research also reported that more than half (56 percent) of those surveyed worry about identifying what news is real and fake online – up two percentage points,” the BBC reported.
“The Reuters Institute said that alongside the rising number of people avoiding news is a drop in trust in reporting in the US to the lowest point yet recorded at just 26 percent of the population, reported The Guardian.
“All of this rang true to Amanda Ripley, a former Time journalist and author of High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped – and How We Get Out. She confessed in a Washington Post column that she was embarrassed as a reporter to admit that she has ‘been actively avoiding the news for years.’ Ripley said it left her ‘so drained that I couldn’t write.’”
“So she rationed her consumption, cutting out television news altogether and waiting until later in the day to read the papers. But it kept coming at her on her phone and social media,” the Guardian reported.
“If you look at that Reuters data and extrapolate it out, we can estimate that roughly 100 million American adults are not getting their news needs met,” Ripley said.
I am also a former fulltime journalist, but I am not embarrassed to be avoiding the news as Ripley said. In fact, I have re-defined what is a news “need.”
The news that I truly need is quite minimal, compared with the torrent of news sewage being offered.
The BBC article talks about Instagram, Twitter and TikTok as purveyors of news. I don’t even speak those languages, so can’t comment, except to say that clearly many younger people go to those sources instead of the traditional sources I go to.
“They have little interest in many conventional news offers oriented towards older generations’ habits, interests, and values, and instead embrace the more personality-based, participatory, and personalized options offered by social media, often looking beyond legacy platforms to new entrants,” said Reuters Institute Director Rasmus Neilsen.
Were I on those newer platforms, I would treat that “news” as I do information from Facebook, as something needing corroboration from more than one reliable traditional source.
The news used to bind Americans together but now separates us into tribes. The ultimate extrapolation of that is civil war. No wonder people avoid the news. But we will not be able to avoid the reality.
In the UK, the BBC was the most trusted news source, the BBC reported. Meanwhile print news in the United States is cratering.
“Estimated revenue from periodical publishing dropped from $40.2 billion in 2002 to $23.9 billion in 2020,” according to the US Census Bureau. “There was a 20.7 percent revenue decline from 2002 to 2010, and a 25.0 percent decrease from 2010 to 2020.”
The research also reported that more than half (56 percent) of those surveyed worry about identifying what news is real and fake online – up two percentage points,” the BBC reported.
“The Reuters Institute said that alongside the rising number of people avoiding news is a drop in trust in reporting in the US to the lowest point yet recorded at just 26 percent of the population, reported The Guardian.
“All of this rang true to Amanda Ripley, a former Time journalist and author of High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped – and How We Get Out. She confessed in a Washington Post column that she was embarrassed as a reporter to admit that she has ‘been actively avoiding the news for years.’ Ripley said it left her ‘so drained that I couldn’t write.’”
“So she rationed her consumption, cutting out television news altogether and waiting until later in the day to read the papers. But it kept coming at her on her phone and social media,” the Guardian reported.
“If you look at that Reuters data and extrapolate it out, we can estimate that roughly 100 million American adults are not getting their news needs met,” Ripley said.
I am also a former fulltime journalist, but I am not embarrassed to be avoiding the news as Ripley said. In fact, I have re-defined what is a news “need.”
The news that I truly need is quite minimal, compared with the torrent of news sewage being offered.
The BBC article talks about Instagram, Twitter and TikTok as purveyors of news. I don’t even speak those languages, so can’t comment, except to say that clearly many younger people go to those sources instead of the traditional sources I go to.
“They have little interest in many conventional news offers oriented towards older generations’ habits, interests, and values, and instead embrace the more personality-based, participatory, and personalized options offered by social media, often looking beyond legacy platforms to new entrants,” said Reuters Institute Director Rasmus Neilsen.
Were I on those newer platforms, I would treat that “news” as I do information from Facebook, as something needing corroboration from more than one reliable traditional source.
The news used to bind Americans together but now separates us into tribes. The ultimate extrapolation of that is civil war. No wonder people avoid the news. But we will not be able to avoid the reality.
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