Reuters Institute Digital News Report
The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is collaborating with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), for the annual Digital News Report – an online survey to study the news consumption habits of consumers across the world, including India. The study has so far covered 46 markets in five continents.
The tenth edition of the Digital News Report, published in 2021, featured India for the first time in the main report.
The Asian College of Journalism provides support in identifying news brands and specific details relevant for the Indian market in the survey questionnaire, verifying the Hindi translation of the questionnaire, and contextualising the main findings for India in the country profile section of the report.
2021 REPORT
The 2021 report focused on trust in news, the pandemic induced economic pressure on news publishers, misinformation and COVID-19, and other aspects of digital news consumption among the public.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: INDIA
India was one of the strongest mobile-focused markets in this survey, with 73% of the respondents using smartphones to access news. Overall, 82% of the respondents sourced news online (including social media), while 63% sourced news from social media platforms. WhatsApp and YouTube were the top social media platforms from where people got their news (53% of respondents) amid concerns of rampant misinformation on these platforms.
On an average, trust in news had grown across the world, with 44% of the total sample for all media markets saying they trust most news most of the time. Finland had the highest levels of overall trust in news (65%) while the US had the lowest levels of trust (29%). India, however, ranked lower at 31 among 46 countries, with 38% of the respondents saying that they trust news overall.
The survey showed that legacy print brands and government broadcasters score high on trust levels among news consumers in India.
2022 REPORT
The 2022 report focused on declining interest in news, fall in trust in news, selective news avoidance by consumers, the fraying relationship between journalism and the public, and how young people access news.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: INDIA
While a general fall in trust in overall news was noted in almost half the countries in the survey, India registered a marginal increase in trust in news. Around 41% (3 pp or percentage points increase from 2021) of the survey respondents in India noted that they trust news overall, improving its position to 20th among the 46 markets (India ranked 31 among 46 markets in 2021).
India was also one of the strongest mobile-focussed markets in the survey, with 72% of the survey respondents accessing news through smartphones and 35% through computers. The survey showed that 84% of the respondents source news online in India, 63% from social media, 59% from television, and 49% from print. YouTube (53%) and WhatsApp (51%) continued to be the top social media platforms for sourcing news, despite concerns of misinformation on social media platforms in general, and larger plans to regulate them in the country.
In India, 36% of the respondents felt that the media is free from undue political influence, and a similar number (35%) felt that the media is free from undue business influence.
2023 REPORT
The 2023 report looked at the declining interest and trust in news, news avoidance and declining engagement with news, and the changing nature of social media platforms for a younger audience.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: INDIA
In India, there was a general decline in overall consumption and sharing of news compared to last year with a sharp decrease in access to online news (- 12 pp), particularly through social media (decrease by 11 pp). Television also saw a 10pp decline as a news source. Only 47% of the survey respondents shared news online compared to 60% in 2022.
India also registered a small decrease of 3 pp (38%) in overall trust in news compared to last year, and was ranked 24 th among 46 countries. Finland remained the country with the highest levels of overall trust in news (69%) while Greece had the lowest levels of trust (19%), globally.
Among individual news brands, public broadcasters like DD India, All India Radio, and BBC News retained high levels of trust among survey respondents in India, emphasising the importance of public service media.
YouTube was the most preferred social media platform for news with 56% of the respondents accessing it, emphasising the importance of video-based content in news, especially for a younger audience. WhatsApp (47%) and Facebook (39%) were the next two preferred social media platforms for news among our survey respondents.
This year’s survey included select regional language news brands in an effort to capture the diversity of the Indian media market and to understand the preference for news in regional languages among English news users. Dainik Bhaskar, a Hindi daily, featured among the top ten brands accessed both online and offline by the survey respondents.
NOTE
In India, the respondents were mainly English-speaking, online news users, leaning towards a more affluent, younger, educated, and urban population. They represent a small portion of a diverse and vibrant media market in the country. Therefore, the findings should not be taken to be nationally representative.
Country profiles – India
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021/india
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022/india
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023/india
Main report
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/Digital_News-Report_2022.pdf
https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/2023
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-06/Digital_News_Report_2023.pdf