“Too much coverage of subjects like politics/coronavirus” is the main reason cited by people who say they “often or sometimes” avoid the news, both in Ireland and internationally, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s 2022 digital news report.
As survey answers go, it contains a multitude of possibilities. Are people bored, baffled or incensed by politics and politicians? Or was the intensity of the Covid crisis so all-encompassing that keeping up with it eventually became incompatible with our daily lives? Did the media go overboard with pandemic coverage and not supply enough in the way of light relief? Or was it simply the state of the world that became too miserable, no matter which way and to what extent it was dutifully reported?
What is clear from the Reuters institute’s tracking of news consumption and avoidance is that a “Covid slump”, after last year’s “Covid bump”, has contributed to higher levels of detachment from the news. We have Covid fatigue. But that’s not all we have. Indeed, the rates at which people avoid the news were already on the rise before the pandemic.
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In Ireland, some 41 per cent said in an early 2022 survey of 2,016 people that they “often or sometimes” avoid the news. This is up from 32 per cent who said so in 2019 and 29 per cent who said so in 2017. Over that time, the proportion who say they “never” avoid the news has dropped from 41 per cent in 2017 to 37 per cent in 2019 and 29 per cent in 2022.
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As far as the news industry is concerned, this is not ideal. In a year in which inflation is causing a cost-of-living squeeze, the second most-cited reason for avoiding the news, both in Ireland and internationally — that it has a “negative effect on my mood” — leaves subscription businesses vulnerable to higher rates of subscriber churn. The third reason for avoidance — being “worn out by the amount of news there is these days” — strikes a similar note of unpromising exhaustion.
So how do media businesses reverse the trend? The answer is evidently not by doing more of the same, but, as report co-author Kirsten Eddy suggested at a Broadcasting Authority of Ireland webinar on Wednesday, experimentation. To reach elusive younger news consumers in particular, the news industry needs to re-examine how it shapes content and how it tries to target its audience.
One reason why younger people avoid the news is that they find it “hard to follow or understand”. This was cited by 9 per cent of Irish 18-24 year-olds and 11 per cent of 25-34 year-olds. Providing more “explainers” on what is happening may help, said Dr Eddy. Another is to follow young people to the platforms they spend time entertaining themselves on — increasingly, that means TikTok. Sure, it might not improve anyone’s mood, but then blissful ignorance is forever just one swipe away.
