Irish people continue to trust major news brands, but are losing trust in news more generally, according to a report.
The latest annual Digital News Report Ireland, published by Coimisiún na Meán, shows 42 per cent of Irish people trust most news most of the time, but the figure is down from 51 per cent last year.
Despite the decline in trust in news, Irish people continue to trust major news brands. RTÉ News and local radio news emerged as the most trusted brands, as 71 per cent of people cited these as trustworthy sources of news.
These are followed closely by local newspapers (69 per cent), The Irish Times (69 per cent) and the Irish Independent (68 per cent).
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Trust in news is lowest among the 18-24-year-old age demographic at 33 per cent, while it is highest among those aged over 65 at 52 per cent.
Trust in news in Ireland remains relatively high compared to the UK, where the figure is 31 per cent, and the US, where the figure stands at 26 per cent. The European average is 36 per cent.
An increase in news avoidance has emerged as another key trend in this year’s report and is at its highest recorded rate. Almost half of people said they actively tried to avoid news, up from 41 per cent last year.
Research for the report was undertaken by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. Analysis of the Irish data was provided by the DCU Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society.
Fifty-four per cent of Irish people said they were “extremely or very interested” in news, down from 70 per cent in the Covid-era of 2021. The rate was 48 per cent in the US and 37 per cent in the UK. The European average was 44 per cent.
Separately, when considering news sources, 51 per cent said they could trust the news they personally consumed. Forty-two per cent trusted “most news” while 31 per cent trusted news from search engines.
Sixteen per cent of people said they trusted news from social media while 14 per cent trusted news from AI chatbots.
Asked if news provided by public service broadcasters had a positive or negative effect on life in the country, 42 per cent of Irish respondents said it has a positive effect. A fifth said it had a negative effect.
The report showed 22 per cent of people in Ireland were now paying for news, up from 9 per cent a decade ago.
Asked why they paid for online news, 39 per cent said they did so to get useful content they could not access any other way while 38 per cent said it was to support journalism because they thought it was important to society.
When asked which, if any, social media platform they used for finding, reading, watching, sharing or discussing news, Facebook was cited by 33 per cent, followed by WhatsApp at 27 per cent, YouTube at 26 per cent, Instagram with 23 per cent, TikTok at 15 per cent and X with 11 per cent.
Seven in 10 people said they were concerned about what was real and what was fake online, up from 68 per cent last year.
