The largest international study on the state of the press – the Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute – places elDiario.es as the most widely read native digital media in Spain, with an audience of 13%. In addition, elDiario.es revalidates its position among the most trusted media, with a trust percentage of 40%, while the national average falls to 33%.
The annual report is compiled from nearly 95,000 interviews in 47 countries. In Spain, more than 2,000 interviews were conducted between late January and early February, via an online questionnaire.
elDiario.es is ahead of other digital natives such as okdiario.com, elespañol.com and elconfidencial.com. In addition, its weekly percentage is equal to that of much older newspapers with a print edition, such as elmundo.es and 20minutos.es. Only Antenna3.com and elpais.com, with 19% and 15% respectively, surpass elDiario.es in terms of weekly reach.
In terms of traditional media (television, radio and print), Antena3 Noticias comes first with 41%, followed by RTVE (26%), LaSexta Noticias (23%) and Noticias Telecinco (22%). [Puedes consultar aquí todos los datos para España]
Trust in the news has remained unchanged overall, but those who distrust it (40%) still outnumber the group that generally trusts it (33%). The report, however, highlights that “trust in the public media RTVE has increased by 6 percentage points, thanks in particular to young people (25-34 years old) and left-wing voters.”
The average global trust in the media is 40%, as last year. Finland remains the country with the highest levels of trust (69%), and the lowest are in Greece and Hungary (23%), where there are concerns about undue political and commercial influence on the media. In Spain, 12% of respondents pay for online news, compared to an average of 17% among the 20 richest countries.
True and false
The study notes that concern about what is real and what is fake on the internet when it comes to news has increased by three percentage points over the past year, with about six in ten (59%) expressing concern. “We are seeing increasing attention paid to partisan commentators, influencers and young creators, particularly on YouTube and TikTok,” they add.
Among users’ preferred sources of information for getting their news, online media (including social networks) are the favorite, with 72%. Television comes in second, but has continued its downward trend uninterruptedly since 2015. It was then at 82%; now, at 56%. Apart from a slight rebound from 2015 to 2016, the decline of the written press seems unstoppable since 2013. It has fallen from 61% that year to 23% today.
The decline in the audience of the written press has been unstoppable since 2013. It has gone from 61% that year to 23% today.
TikTok surpasses Twitter
Globally, the report detects a fragmentation between the major platforms through which users obtain information. If ten years ago there were two major platforms, today there are six networks that reach at least 10% of respondents.
“Nearly a third of the global sample (31%) turn to YouTube every week for news and around a fifth do so on WhatsApp (21%), while for the first time TikTok (13%) has overtaken Twitter (the network now called X has 10%),” the report said.
Video is the most important source of online information, especially among young people. Two-thirds of them, or 66%, access short informative videos each week. Longer formats attract around half (51%). The study warns that the “epicentre” of video information consumption is on platforms (72%) and not on media websites (22%).
Exhausted by the amount of news
The percentage of people who selectively avoid certain information reaches the highest levels in living memory. It reaches 39% worldwide, compared to 29% in 2017. The same percentage, 39%, is that of people who say they feel exhausted by the amount of information. In Spain, this percentage is one of the highest in the world, fatigue reaches 44% while in 2019 it was 26%.
“Since we have been monitoring these issues, smartphone usage has increased, as have the number of notifications sent by applications of all types, which may contribute to the feeling that it is difficult to escape the news,” they point out. ” reports and adds: “Artificial intelligence can make this situation worse, creating an avalanche of low-quality content and synthetic material of dubious origin.”
