Irish people opt for news coverage on their smartphones

The smartphone is the dominant source of news for people.

Irish people have a greater interest in news than their counterparts in Britain or North America.

The smartphone is now the dominant source of news for people too, with more than one third of people reaching for their phone to catch up on news first thing in the morning.

Those are some of the findings of the latest Digital News Report Ireland 2022, which also found that nine out of 10 people say they pay attention to climate change coverage in the media.

This report looks at research undertaken by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and is the largest ongoing comparative study of news consumption in the world. 

The report includes an analysis of international and Irish trends, such as levels of trust in news sources and paying for news.

Climate change

The demand for climate coverage differs by age group, as 55% of those aged 65 and over said they want to read news reports about climate change, compared to 34% of those aged 18-24.

Looking at the levels of interest people have in news, 57% of Irish people said they were extremely or very interested in news.

This showed a drop from last year, which was 70%. Researchers believe this may be down to a ‘Covid slump’, with people now weary of the pandemic’s dominance of the news agenda.

Despite this, interest in news among Irish respondents was higher than in Britain (43%), Europe (49%), and North America (47%).

The level of public trust in news remains relatively high in Ireland, and 52% of respondents said they ‘tend to agree’ (46%) or ‘strongly agree’ (6%) with the statement ‘you can trust most of the news most of the time’. This is higher than the 2022 figure for Britain (34%), the EU (42%), and North America (34%).

Fake news 'a concern'

However, fake news is a major concern in Ireland, as 58% of Irish consumers said they were concerned about misinformation. This is higher than their EU counterparts (48%), and lower than the UK (61%) and North America (60%).

Around 83% of consumers in Ireland access news at least once a day via any platform, showing a high frequency of access.

For 35% of Irish people surveyed, the smartphone is the device of choice when accessing the news first thing in the morning, followed closely by the radio at 31%.

Chief executive of the BAI, Celene Craig said that 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.