Irish radio is leading the way in an international report on the way consumers get their first taste of news in the morning.
The Digital News Report sees 31% of news consumers in Ireland saying they get their first news of the day from the radio, compared to 17% in the UK and an EU average of 19%.
However, the smartphone has beaten radio in Ireland for consumer news first thing in the morning with 35% of respondents use their phones as the ‘go to’ to access news.
Research for the Digital News Report is undertaken by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and is the largest ongoing comparative study of news consumption in the world. The Irish data forms part of the larger survey, conducted in 46 countries.
Ireland’s participation has been facilitated for the past eight years through sponsorship by the BAI, with analysis of the Irish data by researchers from the Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo) at Dublin City University. The report includes analysis of international and Irish trends in the online news audience, trust in news sources, and paying for news.
This year’s report also looks at how Generation Z consumes news, and their attitudes to coverage of climate change, and provides new data on news brands. Additionally, six essays by DCU researchers on relevant topics, including news reporting relating to Ukraine, are incorporated.
The Digital News Report Ireland 2022 will be launched today (15.06.22) by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland at an online event at noon. Members of the public can register for free by clicking here.
Commenting, Chief Executive of the BAI, Celene Craig, said: “It is heartening to see that trust in news in Ireland remains high, with more than half of those surveyed here agreeing that they can trust news most of the time. It is also wonderful to see that Ireland still leads the 46 countries involved in this year’s report in the number of people turning to radio as their first source of news in the morning.”