Concern over fake news increases – Reuters study
The proportion of those who expressed concern over what is real and fake on the internet rose from 56 percent in 2023 to 59 percent in 2024, according to Reuters Digital News Report.
MANILA, Philippines — Concern over what is real and fake in online news and news avoidance have increased, while trust in news worldwide has remained the same since last year, the 2024 edition of the Reuters Digital News Report said.
According to the study released on Monday, the proportion of those who expressed concern over what is real and fake on the internet rose from 56 percent in 2023 to 59 percent in 2024.
In social media, 27 percent of TikTok users said they “struggle to detect trustworthy news,” and 24 percent of X, formerly Twitter, users said that it was “hard to pick out trustworthy news.” It was lower on other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and WhatsApp, according to the study.
The research also found that news avoidance, or the tendency of people to avoid the news due to various factors, was at its highest level at 39 percent, which is a three-point increase from 36 percent in 2023.
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Some of the reasons that Reuters mentioned as the causes of news avoidance included feelings of depression when receiving news as well as the high volume of information in the news.
Meanwhile, 40 percent of Reuters’ respondents in 47 markets said they trust the news.
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However, Reuters made the distinction that news trust differed from the trustworthiness of the news itself.
“Public trust is not the same as trustworthiness. Sometimes people trust individuals and institutions that are not, in fact, trustworthy. Sometimes they do not trust – or even distrust – those that they might, on closer inspection, see are trustworthy (or that journalists or others think they ought to see as trustworthy),” it said in the report.
The report also sheds light on some interesting demographic trends. It found that young people, individuals with lower income, and those with lower levels of formal education were more likely to express a lack of trust in the news. This insight into the demographics of news trust provides a deeper understanding of the factors influencing public perception of news.
