Younger people’s interest in the news has plunged since 2016, according to a survey of more than 2,000 people in Ireland.
Just 28 per cent of Irish 18-24 year olds say they are “extremely” or “very” interested in the news, down from 53 per cent in 2016.
The study was conducted as part of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s 46-country global digital news report.
The difference between this age group and over-65s, some 69 per cent of whom reported strong interest in the news, “could not be starker”, said DCU’s Institute of Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo) in its analysis of the report.
The study found that RTÉ News is the most trusted news brand in Ireland, ahead of The Irish Times and local or regional radio. BBC News and local or regional newspapers had the next highest trust rates.
Concern about what is real or fake online is also comparatively high in Ireland at 64 per cent, up from 58 per cent last year.
Celene Craig, broadcasting commissioner at Coimisiún na Meán, said this growing level of concern about online misinformation was one of the “standout findings” of the Irish report.
Global survey
The global report also found that more young people are accessing news via TikTok with users tending to pay more attention to celebrities and social media influencers than to journalists or media companies for news.
The Chinese-owned app is the “fastest growing social network” in the global survey – used by 44 per cent of 18-24-year-olds for any purpose and by 20 per cent for news.
The shift comes as the use of Facebook as a news source declines with 28 per cent of surveyed people saying they accessed news via the platform in 2023 compared with 42 per cent in 2016.
Research found that TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat users tend to pay more attention to celebrities and social media influencers than they do to journalists or media companies when it comes to news topics while news organisations on “legacy” social networks like Facebook and Twitter still attract most attention.
News usage for Twitter has remained “relatively stable” in most countries, according to the report.
Reuters Institute director Rasmus Neilsen said: “Younger generations increasingly eschew direct discovery for all but the most appealing brands.
“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 personalised options offered by social media, often looking beyond legacy platforms to new entrants (many of whom drive few referrals to media organisations and do not prioritise news).”
The report also found that growth in payment for online news has stalled with more than one-third of subscribers (39 per cent) across more than 20 countries saying they have cancelled or renegotiated their news subscriptions in the last year.
Reuters Institute said the need to save money was “by far” the biggest reason given for the cutbacks.
Other key findings from the report highlighted that trust in the news has fallen by two percentage points in the past year and that 56 per cent of surveyed people say they worry about identifying the difference between what is real and fake on the internet when it comes to news – up two percentage points compared with last year.
Figures are from YouGov Plc with 93,895 adults in 46 countries participating in an online survey, with around 2,000 people per market.
