The Reuters Digital News Report Ireland comes against a backdrop of an ongoing cost of living crisis and war in Europe.
Eighty-three percent of people in Ireland said they have been “hard hit” by the cost of living crisis.
While fewer people are subscribing to news, the figure is down just 1 percent in Ireland, said Colleen Murrell, a journalism professor at the DCU.
This year’s survey published a separate section on finances and the cost of living.
It found that the majority of Irish people (46 per cent) turn to the mainstream media for advice on personal finance or the economy.
The report also found that confidence in news has fallen slightly in Ireland this year, but is still “fairly healthy” compared to other countries.
The report found that young Irish men are the most distrustful of the media, with only 31 per cent saying they trust “the most news, most of the time”.
Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s new media regulation commission, will officially launch the report this morning.
The annual publication is the largest ongoing comparative study of news consumption in the world and includes analysis of international and Irish trends in online news audiences, trust in news sources and pay for news.
The Irish data was collected through a survey of 2,035 people. Every year key questions are asked about which media people use, which titles they subscribe to and how they watch, listen or read the news.
Confidence in the news is also down 5 percent to 41 percent since last year, but compared to other countries the figure is “fairly healthy,” Prof Murrell said.
But Prof Murrell said this year’s results are a bit of a “reality check” as interest in news has dropped dramatically since the pandemic.
“Some of the measures that we always look at are a bit disappointing. For example, interest in news has dropped from a Covid high in 2021 of 70 percent to 52 percent this year,” she said.
“But Ireland is still doing well compared to the markets we compare ourselves to, such as the UK, US and Europe.
“What is even more worrying is that young people (18-24 years old) register only 28 percent interest in news, while in 2016 this group registered 53 percent interest in news.
“The main source of news for the population at large is television and online news sites – both at 32 percent.
“Social media as a category is way behind at 20%, with radio at 11% and print newspapers at 5%,” added Prof. Murrell.
“If you only look at young people aged 18-24, their main source of news is social media (39%), online (31%), followed by TV (18%), radio (5%) and print newspapers (5%) .”
The report also found that smartphones are still the main devices people use to access news at 67% and specialist topics are the most popular podcasts for Irish listeners at 18%, with news at 13%.
Phones are still the main devices people use to access news
