The Reuters Institute Digital News Report, which surveyed nearly 100,000 people across 48 countries including Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, concludes that the media environment has splintered, with attention, trust and influence no longer sitting in the same place. Reach has moved to platforms, trust has fragmented, video is ascending, creators are interpreting and AI chatbots are a new force. Here are the important findings:
- Social Media and Video Networks Pass News Organizations — 54 percent of respondents said that they use social media and video networks to access online news compared to 51 percent who use the news organizations’ own websites and apps. This is the first time that third-party intermediated news access is higher than direct use of sites owned by the media, effectively the “platformization” of news consumption according to Reuters Institute Director Mitali Mukherjee.
- Video Now the Dominant News Format — 77 percent of respondents consume online news videos each week. More people now watch online news videos than broadcast TV news in 45 of the 48 markets. Growth in use of third-party platforms for video news is concentrated among Facebook at 43 percent, YouTube at 34 percent, TikTok at 20 percent and Instagram at 26 percent.
- Trust in Media Continues to Ebb — Trust declined in half of the countries surveyed, leaving trust in news overall at 37 percent, the lowest level since Reuters began its study. The largest declines in trust occurred in the Philippines, Thailand, Peru and Poland. The common thread is political instability, divisive elections and a fragmented information environment. Only 32 percent trust news in search engines, 22 percent trust news in social media and 20 percent trust news in AI chatbots.
- Decline in Interest in News — One quarter of respondents describe themselves as passive news users, consuming news only once a week, down ten points from a decade ago. The proportion of those describing themselves as very or extremely interested in news has declined significantly, with the UK showing a 33-point decline in the past five years from 70 percent to 37 percent. Forty-two percent of respondents say that they often or sometimes avoid the news.
- Big Jump in Fears of Misinformation — Deep fakes, AI slop and politically motivated fake news are of special concern (more than 75 percent of respondents) in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, plus major developed markets such as the U.S., UK and Australia. The fear levels are highly correlated to the use of social media and video networks for news.
- Creators Now Part of the News Ecosystem — 27 percent of respondents said that they get their news from creators. Forty-seven percent of those relying on creators say that they feel satisfied with this as their sole news source (the equivalent of 13 percent of the total population). But the Reuters study contends that only 3 percent of respondents rely solely on creators for news, making this a complementary aspect of the news ecosystem. Creators rank very high for ease of understanding, entertaining and relatable content, but much lower on trustworthiness and impartiality.
- Rising Use of AI Chatbots — Use of AI chatbots increased from 7 percent to 10 percent over the past year, driven largely by adoption in developing markets across Asia and Africa. Predictably this is driven by youth using chatbots for news (17 percent), three times the level of the oldest age group, though the biggest growth in the past year is among 25–44-year-olds. Almost a third of those using chatbots report using them several or 10+ times daily. The primary uses include interpretation of a story, summary of a story and making stories easier to understand. Reuters also notes a significant trend for mainstream media: chatbot users are much less likely to click through to original news sources than traditional Google Search users.
Edelman is committed to winning communications strategies that combine trusted earned media, platform-native storytelling, deep involvement with news creators, AI visibility through strong proof points on owned channels and the use of paid amplification. We know that trust is earned through truth well told, thoroughly sourced, fact-checked and updated with the latest developments.
