Digital News Report: Australia

Digital News Report: Australia 2024

AI AND SHORT VIDEO ARE CHANGING THE WAY AUSTRALIANS THINK ABOUT NEWS

The emergence of generative AI products such as ChatGPT are increasingly being used in the production of journalism, raising concerns about the origins and veracity of information produced by these algorithmic programs. This year’s Digital News Report: Australia 2024 shows that Australians are much less comfortable with AI-generated news (59%) than audiences in other parts of the world (45%). Importantly, there is nuance in their response. People are more at ease with journalism produced mainly by humans with AI assistance, than journalism primarily created by AI with human oversight.

As debate continues locally and internationally about the role of social media platforms and how to regulate them, more Australians are using social media to access news. One quarter now rely on it as their main source of news, particularly Facebook, and young people and women use it the most. This year’s data also show a maturation of the news market on TikTok and Instagram Reels, with short video now a clear mainstay format for news consumption among younger generations.

Australian news media organisations and audiences operate in a volatile environment. Australian news organisations are challenged with the continued fall in media advertising and contractions in local news markets. Meta’s closure of its News Tab and the deprioritisation of political content on Instagram will reduce the visibility of news on these social media platforms, with vulnerable groups missing out on important and reliable information. There is increased uncertainty around the News Media Bargaining Code following Meta’s announcement it will not renew its funding agreements with news businesses. The government has announced a new policy to promote a diverse and sustainable media sector – the News Media Assistance Program – but it is yet to be implemented.

In times burdened by persistent inflation, rising cost of living, international conflicts, and severe climate events, Australians need trustworthy news. But ongoing challenges to the financial viability of news are compounding and news avoidance is rising.

In this 10^th edition of the Digital News Report: Australia we highlight the top ten trends in news consumption and attitudes, while showcasing insights from industry insiders on what they see as the pathways forward.

Over half of Australians (51%) access news more than once a day, which is a 3 percentage point increase from last year.
Almost half of Australians (49%) use social media to access news, marking a 4 percentage point increase since last year. Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z (60%) rely on social media as their main news source, which is a significant increase of 17 percentage points in the past year.
Trust in news generally fell slightly (-3pp) to 40% but remains within the long-term trend of trust hovering in the low 40s. However, distrust is rising consistently and at a faster rate than trust in news is falling. Distrust is at its highest point since 2016 (33% +8pp).
News avoidance remains high (68%) and close to the global average.
Since 2019 there has been a 13 percentage point increase in those saying they are worn out by the volume of news. News fatigue is prevalent among light news consumers and social media news users.
Over the past two years, podcast listening has increased among Gen Z women to 61% (+14pp) and Baby Boomers+ to 18% (+4pp). In general, men (44%) are still more likely than women (35%) to have listened to a podcast in the last month.
Reflecting the growth of TikTok and Instagram Reels, video news consumption is becoming increasingly popular, especially short form news videos.

For more information, please read the final report.

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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 Oxford University. The Digital News Report delivers comparative data on media usage in 47 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 tenth annual DNR: Australia.

Cite the report as:

Park, S., Fisher, C., McGuinness, K., Lee, J., McCallum, K., Cai, X., Chatskin, M., Mardjianto, L. & Yao, P. (2024). Digital News Report: Australia 2024. Canberra: News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra.

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Digital News Report: Australia