Irish people’s interest in news falls amid ‘selective avoidance’ of topics

News fatigue has increased further over the last year with the percentage of people in Ireland who say they are “extremely interested” or “very interested” in news dropping to 52 per cent, down from 57 per cent last year and 70 per cent two years ago.

Younger people’s interest in the news has also plunged since 2016, according to a survey of more than 2,000 people in Ireland conducted as part of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s 46-country global digital news report.

Just 28 per cent of 18-24 year olds say they are “extremely” or “very” interested in the news, down from 53 per cent in 2016.

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.

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While the percentage of people who report being “somewhat interested” in news climbed from 33 per cent to 37 per cent, FuJo said the “more nonchalant” view reflected a sense that consumers were engaging in “selective avoidance” of the news.

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The researchers said 2022 – when the survey was conducted near the end of Covid’s dominance of the news cycle – may have represented the peak of news avoidance. Some 41 per cent said last year that they “often or sometimes” avoid the news and this figure is now 34 per cent. However, more people reported this year that they “occasionally” avoid the news.

“What we are seeing now, following on from 2022, is a distinct case of selective news avoidance among some of the population,” said FuJo’s Prof Colleen Murrell, co-author of the analysis.

Among those who said they swerved certain news topics, the war in Ukraine topped the list of avoided subjects, followed by news relating to social justice such as gender, race and LGBTQ+ issues. Entertainment and celebrity news was the next most common topic to be avoided, just ahead of national politics.

The trend of declining thirst for news in Ireland mirrors one happening more broadly around the world, with the Oxford University-based Reuters Institute finding that only 48 per cent of people now say they are “extremely” or “very” interested in the news, down from 63 per cent in 2017.

The Irish analysis of the study, published by media regulator Coimisiún na Meán, also found that only a quarter of people agree that it is better to have a human editor/journalist select or curate what they consume, while 31 per cent believe it is better to see news selected by an algorithm based on their viewing history and preferences.

However, more than half of news consumers – 53 per cent – “strongly agree” or “tend to agree” that personalised news may cause them to miss important news stories, while 51 per cent are “very” or “somewhat” concerned about encountering only viewpoints that accord with their own.

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Trust in the news, meanwhile, has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels. Some 47 per cent of news consumers either “strongly agree” or “tend to agree” with the statement they can trust most of the news most of the time, down from 52 per cent last year. But Irish trust levels compare favourably with those in the UK, where only 32 per cent say they trust the news, as well as the US, where 31 per cent trust the news. Across Europe, the trust rate is 40 per cent.

RTÉ News retained its place as the most trusted news brand, 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 report.