Digital News Report: Australia 2022

AS MISINFORMATION INCREASES ONLINE AUSTRALIANS STICK TO TRUSTED SOURCES OF NEWS

This year’s report contains positive signs for the Australian news industry. After years of stagnation, paying for news has increased. Print news consumption has risen for the first time in six years, and the use of regional and local newspapers is up as well. Trusted traditional and public service broadcasters remain the most popular sources of news and there continues to be a strong audience appreciation for journalistic values of impartiality and independence.

Australians are also becoming more cautious about mainly getting our news from social media platforms, which bucks the global trend. This is partly driven by Australians’ greater concern about and experience of online misinformation, particularly about Covid-19. Younger news consumers are now turning to traditional news more often, with fewer in Gen Z and Y saying it is their main source of news.

The pandemic seems to have shifted how people access and engage with news. While there are some signs that news habits are reverting back to pre-Covid levels, some new behaviours may be here to stay.

Trust in news generally has fallen slightly to 41% (-2) and distrust has risen to 30% (+2).
Experience of Covid-19 misinformation is up; those saying they saw false and misleading info about Covid-19 increased by 4 percentage points from 2021.
Almost one in five (18%) don’t pay attention to climate change news; but 42% say they want news outlets to focus more on what governments and large companies can do about it.
More Australians are paying for online news; 18% now pay for news online and this is a 5 percentage point increase since 2021.
Younger generations say they are less reliant on social media for news; those in Gen Z saying social is their main source of news (46%) fell by 8 percentage points from 2021.
TikTok continues to rise; TikTok usage has doubled since 2020 (7% to 15%), and one-third of users say they use it for news.
Use of smart TVs for news is growing; One in four (23%) Australians use smart TVs to access news, and TV remains the most popular main source of news (42%).

For more information, please read the final report.

Download the report

About

This report is part of a long running international survey coordinated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, an international research centre in the comparative study of journalism based at the University of Oxford. The Digital News Report delivers comparative data on media usage in 46 countries and across 6 continents.

The News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra is the Australian partner institute and author of the Digital News Report: Australia. This is the seventh annual Digital News Report: Australia.

Cite the report as: Park, S., McGuinness, K., Fisher, C., Lee, J. Y., McCallum, K. & Nolan, D. (2022). Digital News Report: Australia 2022. Canberra: News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra.