Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 launched its 10th edition last week. This year’s study, that by now represents half the world’s population (data from 6 continents and 46 markets) was dominated by the Covid19 pandemic impact.
Trust in news, misinformation, social media, subscriptions and more. See the key findings on news use worldwide from the Digital News Report 2021 in this 2-minute video.
The first thing mentioned in the summarized key findings of the Digital News Report 2021, is referred to “Trust in the news” issue. The KPIs have grown (+6% on average) in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. This reverses, to some extent, recent falls in average trust – bringing levels back to those of 2018. Yet, the fact that trust in news from search and social media has remained broadly stable, actually gives more bonus points to aggregated news content.
The Covid19 effect
From TV advertising expenditure falling by 61% (2020 vs 2019) in Greece, and from significantly higher consumption of television news (Europe) than a year ago when no restrictions on movement were in place, to extended misinformation phenomena. In fact, the pandemic has hastened the demise of printed newspapers, further impacting the bottom line for many companies.
Shift towards paywalls
Study shows that print and digital-born publishers turned to subscription, membership, and donations to reduce their reliance on advertising.
More details on the background of this turn can be given if we examine the numerical data in relation to actual events.
Accessing news online
Each year, more people say that they prefer to access news via search or social media, even if the motives are different. With Facebook becoming less important for news, visual networks like Instagram (and TikTok) seem to be on the rise.
Follow #DNR21 in social media to know more! You might even want to see the official findings presentation by Edelman!
Source: Newman, Nic, Richard Fletcher, Anne Schulz, Simge Andı, Craig T. Robertson, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2021. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
