Worldwide, People Are Getting Turned Off By The News, Reuters Study Warns

This month's fashionable, if unsettling, new phrase in media circles is "selective news avoidance," which comes from the latest edition of the annual Reuters Institute Digital News Report.

Photo Insert: News fatigue has received a lot of attention from media commentators in the US, frequently in relation to the draining Trump-related news cycles, but Nielsen has observed it elsewhere as well.

Rasmus K. Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, described the phenomena at the recent New York launch event, where the research was unveiled and hailed as "the most comprehensive study of news consumption worldwide."

While most individuals "remain engaged and use the news regularly," the researchers discovered that "many also increasingly choose to ration or limit their exposure to it — or at least to certain types of news." They gave a range of explanations for their decision.

News fatigue has received a lot of attention from media commentators in the US, frequently in relation to the draining Trump-related news cycles, but Nielsen has observed it elsewhere as well.

From Brazil to Australia to the UK to the US, "news avoidance" has increased, according to the institute's polls of online news consumers in 46 nations, Brian Stelter reported in an analysis for CNN Business.

Some consumers simply have "less interest in news than they had in the past," according to Nielsen. Even among people who are normally active news consumers, many are "selectively avoiding news often or sometimes," whether because the topic is off-putting or the amount of information is overwhelming.

"When we asked them why, part of this is about politics," Nielsen explained. "Some would say they find the news untrustworthy or biased," but it's much more than that. "A large number of those who selectively avoid the news say the news has a negative effect on their mood," he said.

During a Reuters-sponsored panel discussion in New York, Vox publisher Melissa Bell discussed the "powerlessness" that readers sometimes feel when presented with sad story after bleak story. She challenged newsrooms to consider producing journalism "as a service to audiences" rather than simply publishing.

In reaction to the Reuters Institute results, scientific journalist Susan D'Agostino suggested that news "moderation," rather than avoidance, may be the answer. Think about it: A never-ending stream of news on a phone screen is a piercing scream, unlike, say, a half-hour newscast that always ends with sports or a feel-good story.

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