Tag: news avoidance

No news is bad news

Mainstream media’s relevance in today’s world has been dealt another blow by a new report on digital media.

The Digital News Report 2023 by the Reuters Institute at Oxford University covers 46 countries that account for more than half the world’s population. Sadly, New Zealand is not among them, but its findings are as applicable here as anywhere.

The bottom line: Many publishers are struggling to convince people that their news is worth paying attention to, let alone paying for.

The Reuters Institute has been tracking digital news audience behaviour in annual reports since 2012. Its first report (which surveyed five nations) noted mainstream media were investing heavily in ‘digital first’ strategies and the use of social media to access news content was on the rise.

The ensuing 11 years have seen that change accelerate but not in ways that news publishers and broadcasters would either anticipate or desire. The latest report provides few, in any, bright spots for them. Continue reading “No news is bad news” →

News avoidance and lack of trust MUST send a message to media

More than two-thirds of New Zealanders actively avoid news coverage and more than one in ten do so regularly.

Findings released this morning by AUT’s JM&D journalism research centre make sober reading. Its latest Trust in News report shows Kiwis are avoiding the news because they think it is depressing and biased.

In its 2023 survey, which is based on an international study by the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, JM&D asked for the first time about news avoidance and political influence. It used Horizon Research to conduct a nationwide online survey of 1120 adults in February.

Sixty nine per cent said they sometimes or often avoided the news. That is a statistic that sits well above the Reuters Institute’s multi-nation findings. That study found 54 per cent of Brazilians avoided news, followed by 46 per cent in the United Kingdom, 42 per cent in the United States and 41 per cent in Australia. At the bottom of the avoidance table were Japan (12 per cent) and Finland (20 per cent).

At the other end of spectrum, New Zealand’s international ranking of those ‘highly interested’ in news was equally alarming. Little more than a third expressed a strong focus, compared to more than two-thirds of Finland’s population. Continue reading “News avoidance and lack of trust MUST send a message to media” →

The bad news is people are avoiding the news

 


Last weekend I received an email from an eminent journalist telling me that, with the exception of RNZ’s “Moaning Report”, he was avoiding the news. He is not alone.

He attached an essay from last Friday’s Washington Post that was headed “I stopped reading the news. Is the problem me – or the product?” It was written by Amanda Ripley. No, not the character from the Alien film and video game franchise, but a former Time magazine correspondent who has covered more than her fair share of horror. You can read her essay here. In it she shared a guilty secret: She has been actively avoiding the news for years. She is not alone. Continue reading “The bad news is people are avoiding the news” →