Too Tired to Care?

There is clear evidence to suggest that people are concerned about the prevalence of misinformation and “fake news.” According to a global survey conducted by the United Nations, more than 85% of people are worried about the impact of online disinformation. 87% believe it has already harmed their country’s political functioning. At the same time, the sheer volume of media has made it difficult to parse through all this information. For example, just recently, a survey by the Pew Research Centre found that 62% of Americans are worn out by the quantity of election coverage.

Depressing headlines and an overarching sense of fatigue might also lead some to avoid the news altogether. But what is the relationship between these three variables: avoiding the news, concerns about fake news, and news fatigue?

A study across 16 countries published in the Digital Journalism journal in 2024 found that greater concern about fake news was associated with increased news fatigue and a higher likelihood of news avoidance. This positive relationship was accentuated by high levels of news fatigue. Similarly, lower levels of news fatigue weakened the relationship between concerns about fake news and news avoidance.

This indicates that news fatigue not only plays a crucial role in predicting how often people will avoid the news but also moderates the relationship between concerns about fake news and the likelihood of avoiding the media.

Key Trends:

• At moderate levels of news fatigue, there is no relationship between news avoidance and concern with fake news.

• At high levels of news fatigue, increasing concerns about fake news make news avoidance more likely.

• At low levels of news fatigue, increasing concerns about fake news reduce the likelihood of news avoidance. As such, people are more likely to seek out more news to combat concerns of misinformation!

Pick-up the challenge:

• What is the one issue you wish was more / less reported on?

• How do you think your news consumption influences your perception on information?

Sources:

• https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/07/85-of-people-worry-about-online-disinformation-global-survey-finds

• https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/05/28/more-than-half-of-americans-are-following-election-news-closely-and-many-are-already-worn-out/

• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2021.2016060?casa_token=oM3EYo5ULsYAAAAA%3A-93qSSWik81-vXrtjxu_f7rdTkHnIahfjs6l91PyTC7befbg_N1ifKKNYesdYkH_ZkqNm59qB4nUNg