Report – News and Media Research Centre, 17 June 2024

Digital News Report: Australia 2024

This is the 10th edition of the Digital news report: Australia. To mark the occasion, the News and Media Research Centre has compiled a special lift-out, featuring ten of the most interesting trends to emerge in news consumption and attitudes, including the growth of distrust in news, the divergence of news interest between young men and women, and changing use of social media.

As debate continues locally and internationally about the role of social media platforms and how to regulate them, more Australians are using social media to access news. One quarter now rely on it as their main source of news, with young people and women using it the most.

In a positive light, due to these uncertainties, more Australians have been turning to news and consuming more of it. Despite financial pressures, the proportion of Australians paying for news remains steady (21%) and higher than the global average. The data confirms that quality journalism and transparency are the most important trust factors, and these influence people’s willingness to pay for high quality journalism.

Other key highlights:

  • This year, over half of Australians (51%) accessed news more than once a day, which is a 3 percentage point increase from last year.
  • In response to major events in 2023, such as ongoing military conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the Voice Referendum and flooding in New South Wales and Queensland, there has been a sharp increase in the number of Australians expressing ‘news fatigue’.
  • There are widening gaps between men and women, young and old, low and highly educated, and city and regional audiences in relation to news consumption, news interest, trust, and news avoidance. This reflects the dissatisfaction among sections of the audience that their news interests are not being met.
  • Mainstream news brands and journalists continue to be the most popular source of news for people on social media.
  • Transparency was revealed as one of the major factors of trust in news. The public often feels in the dark about how news organisations produce their news.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Welcome to the 10th edition of the Digital News Report: Australia. To mark the occasion, we have compiled a special lift-out featuring ten of the most interesting trends to emerge in news consumption and attitudes, including the growth of distrust in news, the divergence of news interest between young men and women, and changing use of social media. You can find it on page 16-19 of this year’s report. We have also included some key takeaways for the news industry.

In 2024, we shed light on public attitudes towards the use of AI in journalism. Generative AI products such as ChatGPT are increasingly being used in the production of journalism, raising concerns about the origins and veracity of information produced by these algorithmic programs. This year’s Digital News Report: Australia shows that Australians are much less comfortable with AI-generated news (59%) than audiences in other parts of the world (45%). Importantly, there is nuance in their response. People are more at ease with journalism produced mainly by humans with AI assistance, than journalism primarily created by AI with human oversight.

As debate continues locally and internationally about the role of social media platforms and how to regulate them, more Australians are using social media to access news. One quarter now rely on it as their main source of news, with young people and women using it the most.

Meta’s closure of its News Tab and the deprioritisation of political content on Instagram will reduce the visibility of news on these social media platforms, with vulnerable groups missing out on important and reliable information. This will also have major consequences for small and independent news organisations.

Australian news media organisations and audiences operate in a volatile environment and are challenged with the continued fall in media advertising and contractions in local news markets. There is increased uncertainty around the News Media Bargaining Code following Meta’s announcement it will not renew its funding agreements with news businesses. And while the government has announced a new policy to promote a diverse and sustainable media sector—the News Media Assistance Program—this is yet to be implemented.

In times burdened by persistent inflation, rising cost of living, international conflicts, and severe climate events, Australians need trustworthy news. However, this year’s report shows a continuous increase in news distrust (+8pp since 2016), and a sharp increase in Australians’ concern about misinformation (+11pp since 2022).

In a positive light, due to these uncertainties, more Australians have been turning to news and consuming more of it. Despite financial pressures, the proportion of Australians paying for news remains steady (21%) and higher than the global average. The data confirms that quality journalism and transparency are the most important trust factors, and these influence people’s willingness to pay for high quality journalism.

Following years of bad news regarding regional news consumption, more people are paying for news in regional areas (+2pp) and there has been a 5 percentage point increase in local or regional newspaper consumption among regional audiences.

Read the full report here: https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2024-06/apo-nid326816_3.pdf