Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018 1Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Digital News Report 2018 2Nic Newman with Richard Fletcher , Antonis Kalogeropoulos, David A. L. Levy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen© Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism Supported by Surveyed by Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018 3 / 3 2Contents Foreword by David A. L. Levy 5 Methodology 6 Authorship and Research Acknowledgements 7SECTION 1 Executive Summary and Key Findings by Nic Newman 8SECTION 2 Further Analysis and International Comparison 32 2.1 The Impact of Greater News Literacy 34 2.2 Misinformation and Disinformation Unpacked 38 2.3 Which Brands do we Trust and Why? 42 2.4 Who Uses Alternative and Partisan News Brands? 45 2.5 Donations & Crowdfunding: an Emerging Opportunity? 49 2.6 The Rise of Messaging Apps for News 52 2.7 Podcasts and New Audio Strategies 55SECTION 3 Analysis by Country 58Europe 3.01 United Kingdom 62 3.02 Austria 64 3.03 Belgium 66 3.04 Bulgaria 68 3.05 Croatia 70 3.06 Czech Republic 72 3.07 Denmark 74 3.08 Finland 76 3.09 France 78 3.10 Germany 80 3.11 Greece 82 3.12 Hungary 84 3.13 Ireland 86 3.14 Italy 88 3.15 Netherlands 90 3.16 Norway 92 3.17 Poland 94 3.18 Portugal 96 3.19 Romania 98 3.20 Slovakia 100 3.21 Spain 102 3.22 Sweden 104 3.23 Switzerland 106 3.24 Turkey 108Americas 3.25 United States 112 3.26 Argentina 114 3.27 Brazil 116 3.28 Canada 118 3.29 Chile 120 3.30 Mexico 122Asia Pacific 3.31 Australia 126 3.32 Hong Kong 128 3.33 Japan 130 3.34 Malaysia 132 3.35 Singapore 134 3.36 South Korea 136 3.37 Taiwan 138SECTION 4 Postscript and Further Reading 140 Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Digital News Report 2018 4This is our seventh annual report that explores the changing environment around news across countries. The report is based on a survey of more than 74,000 people in 37 markets, along with additional qualitative research, which together make it the most comprehensive ongoing comparative study of news consumption in the world. Europe remains a key focus, where we cover 25 countries including Bulgaria for the first time this year , but we also cover six markets in Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore) along with four Latin American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico) and the United States and Canada from North America. The report has expanded more than sevenfold since its creation, from five countries in 2012 to 37 in 2018, but it is not yet fully global. Our use of online polling and the need to make meaningful comparisons have meant we have focused on countries with high internet penetration and which are either broadly democratic or generally compare themselves to countries with a democratic tradition. This years report comes amid continuing concern about so-called fake news and about the role of tech companies (platforms) in facilitating the spread of misinformation. Investigations have been launched in many countries, whether about misinformation, use of customer data to target political advertising, or the impact of the tech companies on the news industry. Against that background weve tried to understand more about audience concerns about different kinds of information online, to provide evidence about the state of the industry across our 37 countries as well as insights into the relationship between news publishers and their users. As with previous reports weve done this by triangulating survey data, focus groups and intelligence from expert contributors across all of our countries. We have also introduced some new approaches, through looking at trust at the brand level and the use of focus groups. As politicians and industry grapple for solutions on how to balance freedom of expression and regulation in a digital age we also bring further evidence about how audiences view these issues. We have explored news literacy for the first time, developing a model that allows us to understand more about how this influences trust and the ability to spot misinformation. This year weve looked in much more detail at the changing shape of social media and the increasing importance of messaging apps for news. We conducted a series of focus groups in four countries (United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Brazil) where we talked to users of Facebook and WhatsApp about how they used these networks for news. This has brought out a rich set of insights about why people are often reluctant to share and post openly about contentious subjects and are increasingly choosing safer , more private spaces. In terms of partnerships we continue to deepen our relationships across the world with a multiplicity of distinguished academic institutions. These have helped in a variety of different ways, from preparing country profiles to in-depth analysis of the results. Many of our partners are also organising events or country reports looking in more detail at national themes adding wider value to this international project. Inevitably this printed report can only convey a small part of the data that weve captured. More detail is available on our website (digitalnewsreport), which contains slidepacks, charts, along with a licence that encourages reuse, subject to attribution to the Reuters Institute. All of the website charts have a feature which allows them to be used by or be embedded in any other website or blog. On the website, you can also find a full description of our survey methodology, the full questionnaire, and an interactive charting feature, which allows data to be compared across countries, and over time. Raw data tables are also available on request along with documentation for reuse. Making all this possible, we are hugely grateful to our sponsors: Google, the BBC, Ofcom, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the Dutch Media Authority (CvdM), the Media Industry Research Foundation of Finland, the Fritt Ord Foundation in Norway, the Korea Press Foundation, and Edelman UK, as well as our academic sponsors at the Hans Bredow Institute, the University of Navarra, the University of Canberra, the Centre détudes sur les médias, Université Laval, Canada, and Roskilde University in Denmark. We are also grateful to YouGov, our polling company, who did everything possible to accommodate our increasingly complex requirements and helped our research team analyse and contextualise the data. Foreword Dr David A. L. Levy Director , Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) / 5 4Methodology This study has been commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism to understand how news is being consumed in a range of countries. Research was conducted by YouGov using an online questionnaire at the end of January/ beginning of February 2018. The data were weighted to targets based on census/industry accepted data on age, gender , and region to represent the total population of each country. The sample is reflective of the population that has access to the internet. As this survey deals with news consumption, we filtered out anyone who said that they had not consumed any news in the past month, in order to ensure that irrelevant responses didnt adversely affect data quality. This category was lower than 1% in Finland, averaged around 3%, but was as high as 8% in the United States. A comprehensive online questionnaire 1was designed to capture different aspects of news consumption. Face-to-face focus groups were held in the US, UK, Germany, and Brazil to explore issues relating to social media and messaging apps. These were conducted by Kantar Media. Our survey was conducted using established online panels run by our polling company YouGov and their partners. Because this is an online survey the results will under-represent the consumption habits of people who are not online (typically older , less affluent, and with limited formal education). Where relevant, we have tried to make this clear within the text. The main purpose is to track the activities and changes over time within the digital space as well as gaining understanding about how offline media and online media are used together . A fuller description of the methodology and a discussion of non-probability sampling techniques can be found on our website. Along with country-based figures, throughout the report we also use aggregate figures based on responses from all respondents across all the countries covered. These figures are meant only to indicate overall tendencies and should be treated with caution. In fourteen countries, respondents this year were only able to take the survey using a desktop or laptop computer . Although all other quotas were met (e.g. age, gender , region), it is possible that the figures for device use in those countries may have been affected, specifically computer/laptop figures may be inflated and in some countries smartphone and tablet numbers may be lower than expected. It is important to keep in mind that many people use multiple devices, and the dataset still contains smartphone and tablet users who also use a computer . The countries affected were Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Brazil, Spain, Canada, Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Austria, South Korea, Switzerland, Hungary, and Turkey. We have flagged the problem on country pages where appropriate. Country Final sample size T otal population Internet penetrationEurope UK 2117 66m 95% Austria 2010 8.6m 85% Belgium 2006 11m 88% Bulgaria 2021 7m 60% Croatia 2010 4.2m 74% Czech Rep. 2020 11m 88% Denmark 2025 5.7m 97% Finland 2012 5.5m 93% France 2006 65m 87% Germany 2038 81m 90% Greece 2014 11m 69% Hungary 2005 9.8m 81% Italy 2040 60m 87% Ireland 2007 4.7m 94% Netherlands 2010 17m 95% Norway 2027 5.3m >99% Poland 2005 39m 73% Portugal 2008 10m 72% Romania 2048 19m 63% Slovakia 2006 5.4m 85% Spain 2023 46m 87% Sweden 2016 9.9m 93% Switzerland 2120 8.5m 89% Turkey* 2019 80m 70%Americas US 2401 327m 96% Argentina 2012 44m 79% Brazil* 2007 211m 66% Canada 2022 37m 90% Chile 2008 18m 77% Mexico* 2007 130m 65%Asia Pacifi c Australia 2026 25m 88% Hong Kong 2016 7.4m 87% Japan 2033 127m 93% Malaysia 2013 32m 78% Singapore 2018 5.8m 84% South Korea 2010 51m 93% Taiwan 1008 24m 88% * Please note that in Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey our samples are more representative of urban rather than national populations, which should be taken into consideration when interpreting results. Source: Internet World Stats (internetworldstats) REUTERS INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF JOURNALISM / EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Slide 2 1The full questionnaire can be accessed at digitalnewsreport Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Digital News Report 2018 6Authorship and research acknowledgements Dr David A. L. Levy is Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and an expert in media policy and regulation. He is the author of Europes Digital Revolution: Broadcasting Regulation, the EU and the Nation State (Routledge, 1999/2001), and joint author or editor of several RISJ publications. Nic Newman is Research Associate at the Reuters Institute and is also a consultant on digital media, working actively with news companies on product, audience, and business strategies for digital transition. He writes an annual report for the Institute on future media and technology trends. Dr Richard Fletcher is a Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He is primarily interested in global trends in digital news consumption, the use of social media by journalists and news organisations, and more broadly, the relationship between computer-based technologies and journalism. Dr Antonis Kalogeropoulos is a Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. His doctoral work was focused on the effects of exposure to economic news. His research interests include political communication, journalism, and audience research. Prof. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford, and Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics. His work focuses on changes in the news media, political communication, and the role of digital technologies in both. Country-level commentary and additional insight around media developments have been provided by academic partners and by our network of Reuters Journalist Fellows around the world 2 . Authorship is referenced at the bottom of the respective country page in Section 3. Additional expert analysis and interpretation of the survey data were provided by the team at YouGov, in particular , Charlotte Clifford, Justin Marshall, Sloane Francis Grant, David Eastbury, and Stephanie Frost. 2Reuters Fellowships offer an opportunity to mid-career journalists to spend time researching an aspect of journalism for one or more terms at the Institute in Oxford. / 7 6Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Digital News Report 2018 8Section 1 Executive Summary and Key Findings Nic Newman Research Associate, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / 9 8This years report contains signs of hope for the news industry following the green shoots that emerged 12 months ago. Change is in the air with many media companies shifting models towards higher quality content and more emphasis on reader payment. We find that the move to distributed content via social media and aggregators has been halted or is even starting to reverse, while subscriptions are increasing in a number of countries. Meanwhile notions of trust and quality are being incorporated into the algorithms of some tech platforms as they respond to political and consumer demands to fix the reliability of information in their systems. And yet these changes are fragile, unevenly distributed, and come on top of many years of digital disruption, which has undermined confidence of both publishers and consumers. Our data show that consumer trust in news remains worryingly low in most countries, often linked to high levels of media polarisation, and the perception of undue political influence. Adding to the mix are high levels of concern about so-called fake news , partly stoked by politicians, who in some countries are already using this as an opportunity to clamp down on media freedom. On the business side, pain has intensified for many traditional media companies in the last year with any rise in reader revenue often offset by continuing falls in print and digital advertising. Part of the digital-born news sector is being hit by Facebooks decision to downgrade news and the continuing hold platforms have over online advertising. With data covering nearl