According to a worldwide research, an increasing number of individuals are avoiding news because they find it dull, uninteresting, and sad.
According to a research by Oxford University's Reuters Institute, almost four out of ten individuals globally (39%) indicated they occasionally or sometimes purposefully ignore the news, up from 29% in 2017.
According to the report's authors, people's urge to turn off the news may have been influenced by wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
News avoidance is reportedly at all-time highs right now.
Research indicates that TikTok users are being fed false election news, and that trust in news has increased throughout the epidemic, according to the BBC.
Will memes and TikToks aid in the electoral process?
YouGov conducted a poll in January and February of 94,943 persons in 47 countries for this year's Digital News Report.
It occurs at a time when national and local elections are being held for billions of people worldwide.
According to the research, there has been a surge in news attention in some nations, such as the United States, after elections. Still, the survey shows that the general trend is still firmly downward.
Globally, 46% of respondents said they were very or very interested in the news, a decrease from 63% in 2017.
Since 2015, news attention has almost halved in the UK.
According to principal author Nic Newman of the study, "the news agenda has obviously been particularly difficult in recent years," BBC News.
"People turning away from the news to protect their mental health or just want to move on with their lives is a fairly natural reaction, given the pandemic and wars that have occurred."
Mr. Newman said that those who deliberately choose to stay away from the news often do so because they feel "powerless".
"These are people and she feel they have no agency over massive things that have taken place in the world," he said.
According to him, some individuals are becoming more and more overwhelmed and perplexed by the quantity of news available, while others are weary of politics.
The study found that women and younger individuals were more likely to feel depleted by the volume of news in the media.
According to the poll, confidence in the news is at 40%, which is 4% less than it was during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak.
Although confidence in the news increased little this year to 36% in the UK, it is still around 15% lower than it was before to the Brexit vote in 2016.
In the UK, the BBC was the most dependable news source, followed by ITV and Channel 4.
Overtaking Twitter is TikTok.
Younger people prefer to get their news online or via social media, according to the survey, which shows a steep decline in audience share for conventional news sources like TV and print over the previous ten years.
In the UK, 73% of respondents claimed to obtain their news online, compared to 50% who said they got it via TV and just 14% from print.
Facebook continues to be the most significant social media network for news, despite its steady decrease.
Many people still rely on YouTube and WhatsApp as their primary news sources, but TikTok is becoming more and more popular, surpassing X (previously Twitter) for the first time.
Ten percent of users utilize X, while thirteen percent use the video-sharing app for news.
TikTok's worldwide share of users between the ages of 18 and 24 is significantly greater at 23%.
In accordance with these changes, video is starting to take center stage as an online news source, particularly for younger audiences.
The survey states that the most popular news videos are those that are short.
"Consumers have implemented video because it is easy to use, and delivers a wide range of intriguing and pertinent content," said Mr. Newman.
"But many mainstream newsrooms are still rooted in a text-based culture as well as find it difficult to adapt their storytelling."
According to the survey, news podcasting is a profitable venture for publishers.
However, it draws mostly well-educated audiences and is a "minority activity overall".
According to the survey, there is a general lack of public trust about the potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism, particularly when it comes to serious subjects like politics or war.
"There is more comfort with the use of AI in behind-the-scenes functions such as transcription as well as translation; in supporting rather than replacing journalists," it said.
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