[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] The level of news avoidance among domestic news users has increased compared to before. The biggest reason was bias.
According to the "Digital News Report 2022 Korea" published by the Korea Press Foundation, two out of three Korean respondents (67%) reported having avoided news at some point.
The main reason cited was that the news was "untrustworthy or biased." Users from 36 countries including Germany, France, and Finland most frequently selected "too much coverage of topics like politics/COVID-19," while users from 9 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, and Nigeria most often chose "news negatively affects my mood."
The percentage of respondents who said they were not interested in news was 13%. This figure is more than double what it was five years ago, with younger people showing less interest. Among those under 35, 21% said they were not interested in news, compared to 10% of those older.
News trustworthiness ranked 40th out of 46 countries. It dropped two percentage points from last time to 30%, falling two ranks. The country with the highest news trust was Finland (69%), while the lowest was the United States (26%).
The trend of using portals for digital news consumption was highest at 69%, and YouTube usage (44%) was also notable. For YouTube, usage rates among progressives (52%) and conservatives (55%) were higher than among moderates (43%).
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