Relevance: GS-3: Awareness in the fields of IT, Computers.

Key Phrases: Reuters Institute Digital News Report, YouGuv, Leveling off, Class Divide, Biased Media.

Context:

• According to the 2022 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, trust in news is falling in nearly half the countries surveyed, with significant proportions of the public, especially younger age groups, beginning to turn away from news.
• Further, news consumption is increasingly happening via social media platforms such as TikTok rather than traditional media.

World Press Freedom Index

• The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002.
• On the World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) (3rd May), the 20th edition of the World Press Freedom Index was published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
• Based in Paris, RSF is an independent NGO with consultative status with the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF).
• OIF is a 54 french speaking nations collective.
• The Index ranks countries and regions according to the level of freedom available to journalists. However, it is not an indicator on the quality of journalism.
• India’s ranking in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index has fallen to 150 out of 180 countries, according to the latest report released
• India has fallen eight places from 142nd to 150th in the 2022.
• Norway (1st) Denmark (2nd), Sweden (3rd) Estonia (4th) and Finland (5th) grabbed the top positions.
• North Korea remained at the bottom of the list of the 180 countries.
• Countries are evaluated on five contextual indicators: political context, legal framework, economic context, socio-cultural context, and safety.

About the Report:

• The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, tracks how news is consumed in different countries.
• This year’s report, the eleventh overall, is based on a survey conducted by YouGuv, a British market research and data analytics firm, in January/February 2022 through online questionnaires.
• For India, the data is more representative of younger English speakers.

Major trends highlighted in the report

• Broadly, the report documents the ways in which “the connection between journalism and much of the public may be fraying”. It flags following major trends which could have wider socio-political implications.
  • People are trusting news content less and less.
  • Consumption of traditional news media declined in nearly all the countries surveyed.
  • The proportion of news consumers who say that they “avoid news” has risen sharply across countries, with the report describing the phenomenon as “selective avoidance”.
  • Despite small increases in the proportion of people willing to pay for online news (mostly in richer countries), the growth in digital subscriptions for news content seems to be leveling off.
  • The smartphones have become the dominant way in which most people first access news in the morning.
  • The report notes that while Facebook remained the most-used social network for news, it is TikTok that has become the fastest-growing network, “reaching 40% of 18-24-year-olds, with 15% using the platform for news”.

What is ‘selective avoidance’ of news?

• While the majority of people remained engaged with news, the report finds that a growing minority is increasingly choosing “to ration or limit their exposure to it — or at least to certain types of news”.
• The report calls this behavior “selective avoidance” and says this is one of the reasons why news consumptions levels have failed to increase as per expectations.
• The proportion that says they avoid news has doubled in Brazil (54%) and the U.K. (46%) since 2017.
• Across markets, respondents cited a variety of reasons for this avoidance.

What are the reasons cited for declining trust in news content?

• Biased Media: At present media is mostly biased to a political ideology or to a certain agenda.
• Class Divide: In many countries the lack of trust closely tracked the class divide, with the ‘haves’ showing higher levels of trust, while the ‘have-nots’ viewed media as often aligning itself with the elites.
• Commercial Interest: All or most news outfit sput their own political views or commercial interests ahead of society.
• Repetitive News: People are getting bored by the repetitiveness of the news agenda especially around politics and COVID-19.
• Led to Arguments: Many said they avoided news because it led to arguments they would rather avoid.

Way Forward:

• We need to educate students on media literacy, such as how to assess credibility and differentiate fact from opinion. We can no longer simply assume that people know these things.
• The public needs to accept more responsibility for using critical thinking and becoming smarter about what they read, watch and listen to.

Conclusion:

• Across markets and age groups, text is still king when it comes to news consumption.
• However, younger audiences, especially ‘digital natives’ who grew up with networks like Facebook and TikTok, were more likely to say they “watch the news”.

Sources: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. According to the 2022 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, trust in news is falling. Discuss the reasons dwindling of trust in news and also suggest measures to restore the same.