It seems that the world audience is tired of bad news. War in Ukraine, escalation in the Middle East, inflation and global conflicts - in combination with endless scrolling, it begins to seriously affect the mental health of millions of people.
According to the new Reuters Institute report on digital news, more and more people are consciously avoiding information. On average, 40% of those surveyed in 48 countries have admitted that they sometimes or often do not read news. This is a noticeable growth compared to 29% in 2017.
The trend in the United Kingdom and the United States is especially pronounced, where more than 40% of respondents have already intentionally limited their news.
According to the Statista analyst Felix Richter, the causes of this phenomenon are exhaustion from constant negativity and low trust in the media. There are two main types of avoidance in the report:
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Consistent intricacies - mostly people with lower education levels who are not interested in news at all;
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Selective thorns are those who consciously avoid negative content to maintain emotional stability.
This trend is concerned not only in the media, but also among democracy experts. After all, access to reliable, versatile information is the basis of conscious citizenship.
Reducing the interest in news, especially among young people, can have long -term consequences for elections, policy and civic activity.
