It seems that the global audience is tired of bad news. The war in Ukraine, escalation in the Middle East, inflation and global conflicts - combined with endless scrolling, this is starting to seriously affect the mental health of millions of people.
More and more people are deliberately avoiding information, according to a new Reuters Institute report on digital news. An average of 40% of respondents across 48 countries said they sometimes or often skip reading the news, up from 29% in 2017.
The trend is particularly pronounced in the UK and the US, where over 40% of respondents have already intentionally limited their news consumption.
Statista analyst Felix Richter points out that the reasons for this phenomenon are exhaustion from constant negativity and low trust in the media. The report identifies two main types of avoidance:
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Consistent avoiders are mostly people with lower levels of education who are not interested in the news at all;
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Selective avoiders are those who consciously avoid negative content in order to maintain emotional stability.
This trend is causing concern not only in the media environment, but also among democracy experts. After all, access to reliable, diverse information is the basis of informed citizenship.
Declining interest in news, especially among young people, could have long-term consequences for electoral participation, political awareness, and civic engagement.
