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Sharp decline in appetite for news in recent years, Reuters Institute says (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 year ago by withersailor@aussie.zone to c/news@beehaw.org

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[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Several issues here, but the top one is: no definition of "news."

You might think that's readily apparent, but I guarantee no one else draws the line between news and entertainment exactly where you do. This is unfortunately by design because outlets that make no differentiation get more clicks — and people who have consumed zero news believe they had a Thanksgiving-size portion of it and are well-informed.

[–] dawni@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Really good point.

I feel like the BBC article didn't explain a lot of the context/definitions.

The report itself is interesting, with insights into audience members' self-reported behaviors and preferences on all sorts of news-related topics, formats, and issues. Because it's global, it deals with concepts/definitions of news in many cultures. Unlike the short BBC writeup, the report frequently discusses when it has ceded an interpretation or definition to the audience member, including on the meanings of things like "media criticism" or "news and current affairs podcast". And this one somewhat related to your Thanksgiving-meal analogy:

"At a headline level, we find that avoiders are much less interested in the latest twists and turns of the big news stories of the day (35%), compared with those that never avoid (62%). This explains why stories like Ukraine or national politics perform well with news regulars but can at the same time turn less interested users away. Selective avoiders are less interested in all types of news than non-avoiders but in relative terms they do seem to be more interested in positive or solutions-based news. Having said that, it is not clear that audiences think much about publisher definitions of terms such as positive or solutions journalism. Rather we can interpret this as an oft-stated desire for the news to be a bit less depressing and a bit easier to understand."

Other context that I think would be easy for readers of the BBC article to miss: The research publication is called the Digital News Report, emphasis on digital, which focuses on how publishers can adapt their storytelling to meet audience's on, again, digital platforms. It's based a survey of, specifically, "online news consumers".

Anyway, : https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023