Despite Meta’s claims, the public say they get their news from social media
Welcome to Tuesday’s update from Unmade. In today’s members-only post, we share nine takeouts from the latest edition of the Digital News Report launched in Canberra yesterday.
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Local and social – what the public want from news
Once upon a time in a possibly hypothetical scenario, behavioural economists recruited some people for an experiment.
Ahead of time, they told their subjects that there’d be a small reward waiting. The participants were asked to let the researchers know beforehand whether they’d like some chocolate or a piece of fruit. Most people chose fruit.
That was the experiment.
With a second group, they left the choice of reward until it was in front of them. Most chose the chocolate.
I found myself thinking of that while reading the new edition of the Digital News Report, from the University of Canberra’s News & Media Research Centre. It’s the tenth year of what is an authoritative study now conducted across 47 countries in conjunction with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
When you ask people what sort of information they want, they tell you local news. When it comes to what sort of news they consume (or more to the point, pay for) – not so much.
That’s just one of the many challenges for the news industry to be found within the data, which is based on asking the public what they want.
The good news for those who care about public service journalism is that, at least in theory, the public are supportive of pubic service missions like local, world and environmental news.
The bad news – which goes well beyond the scope of the report – is that they don’t seem to want to pay for it directly, in any signifiant numbers at any rate. After an encouraging trend in the 2023 edition, the number of people willing to pay for news is actually slightly down this year.
There’s more bad news in the report – which polls an online sample of 2,000 – too. People say they are increasingly avoiding news, increasingly distrusting the news brands delivering it, and women are leaving the news ecosystem faster than men.
The data also draws a further contrast to Meta’s claim back in February that news “makes up less than 3% of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed.”
Let’s get into the findings…
1. Social media has never been a bigger news source
First, the number of people saying they use social media as a their main source of news is actually growing. That contradicts the impression given by Meta.
Roughly one in four people said their biggest news sourcde was social media. That’s bigger than radio and newspapers, and threatening to overtake online news.
Facebook is not only still the biggest social media platform for general use (66% of those surveyed), but also as a source of news (32%).
As a side issue, when asked about platforms they actually use, X (or Twitter, if you prefer) retains its relevance. Some 65% of those who still use Twitter do so for news. Thats more than any other platform.
For those (like me) who suspect that Facebook has been deliberately tweaking its algorithm to downgrade news in the face of News Media Bargaining Code politics, the data seems to support that. As a social platform for news, the number for Facebook has fallen from 45% to 32% in just eight years. That’s a completely different pattern to every other platform.
2. Why are women turning away?
As we discussed in yesterday’s Start the Week podcast, women are turning away from news faster than men. The situation is worse among young news consumers
While 47% of Gen Z men say they are interested in news, the number is just 23% in women.
3. News fatigue is a thing
The number of people agreeing with the statement “I am worn out by the amount of news” is on the rise. The proportion of people who strongly agree with that statement almost doubled over the last five years from 6% to 11%.
The number who tended to agree rose from 23% to 30%,
4 Avoiding the news
People whom deliberately avoid news is also up, while the number of people who say they never actively avoid news is just 30%.
5. Distrust in news rises as trust falls
The number of people trusting the news is down to 40%. The number distrusting it – 33% – has never been higher.
6. The rise of SBS
After being neck and neck with the ABC, SBS has now moved ahead as most trusted news brand.
7. Misinformation concerns
With the exception of South Africa, of all the countries surveyed, Australia’s news consumers are most concerned about the spread of misinformation. That number has risen to 75% expressing concern.
8. AI in news
Australians are also among the most (after the UK) uncomfortable with the use of AI in news. 59% have a problem with news mostly created using AI while 28% have an issue with news gathered by humans with some AI assistance.
9. Paying for local news like eating salad
Local news is most important, with 67% saying they were interested in that as a topic. That’s despite local journalism being the sector struggling hardest to find a sustainable business model.
The public say they want their fruit, but are they eating it?
How we covered last year’s Digital News Report :
We discussed the report in yesterday’s edition of Start the Week:
Unmade Index treads water
The Unmade Index finished flat on Monday with improvements from Seven West Medua, ARN Media, Nine and Ooh Media offset by falls from Southern Cross Austereo, Domain, IVE Group and Enero.
The index moved up fractionally, by 0.6 points to 478.3 points
Time to leave you to your day. Thank you as ever for supporting Unmade through your membership
We’ll be back with more tomorrow.
Have a great day.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher – Unmade
tim@unmade.media
