Reuters publishes the Digital News Report 2023

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published its annual Digital News Report for 2023. The report is based on an online survey of roughly 94,000 adults conducted in 46 markets, including the USA.

The report explains how global shocks, including the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, have further intensified structural shifts towards more digital, mobile, and platform-dominated media environments, with implications for journalism’s business models and formats.

Only a fifth of respondents access news through a website or an app, down ten percentage points since 2018. Younger groups everywhere have weaker connections with news brands’ apps and websites and prefer to get their news on social media, search, or mobile aggregators.

TikTok is the fastest-growing social network, used by 20% of respondents for news, and grows rapidly in parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. On platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, audiences pay more attention to celebrities, influencers, and social media personalities, whilst on Facebook and Twitter, news media and journalists are still central to the conversation.

The public is predominantly sceptical of the recommendation algorithms on search engines, social media, and other platforms. About a third of respondents say that having news pushed based on previous consumption is good, down by 6 percent from 2016. However, a third of users still slightly prefer news chosen by editors or journalists (27%), suggesting that worries about algorithms are part of a wider concern about news and how it is selected.