Country and market data

Europe

United Kingdom

The UK was particularly badly affected by COVID-19, with a high death rate, and strict lockdowns, before a successful vaccination roll-out.

Austria

News consumption and trust increased compared with last year, with Austrians often sceptical of the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Belgium

Belgium has two distinct media markets – French-speaking Wallonia and Flemish-speaking Flanders. Given the small size of the markets, publishers continue to see consolidation as a way of securing their digital transition and keeping international companies at bay.

Americas

United States

US news organisations have struggled to cover a pandemic that has claimed more than 500,000 lives, along with the contentious 2020 presidential election, a racial reckoning marked by nationwide protests, and a violent attack on the Capitol by supporters of the outgoing president.

Argentina

Coronavirus has placed fresh pressures on the news industry in Argentina, one of the biggest media markets in South America. Journalists have provided detailed coverage of the epidemic and lockdowns, but lower revenues left many major news companies dependent on state subsidies.

Brazil

Brazil has been among the nations worst affected by Coronavirus – with the second highest death toll after the US by early 2021.

Asia-Pacific

Australia

2020 was one of the toughest years in the Australian news media’s history. More than 150 news titles were closed or suspended 1 – in part as a response to COVID-19.

Hong Kong

A new National Security Law has deepened already serious concerns about diminishing press freedom and editorial independence in Hong Kong. This follows a challenging time for the news media in reporting prolonged citizen protests amid a major health pandemic.

India

Indian media are extremely diverse, with thousands of outlets operating in multiple languages. Much of the media is controlled by large, for-profit corporations, many of them privately held, and mainly funded by advertising.

Africa

South Africa

South Africa has one of the most diverse and independent media in Africa with a high degree of press freedom.

Nigeria

Nigeria's vibrant media scene is characterised by state and private broadcasters, popular international brands like the BBC and CNN, and more than 100 national and local print titles, many of which are struggling with digital transition.

Kenya

Kenyan media were suffering from pre-existing financial instability before the COVID-19 pandemic as they struggled to come to terms with digital disruption. Despite these challenges, the media are still a trusted source of news and the choices available to consumers continue to expand.

Methodological note

In this section we publish a market-based view of the findings, which includes an overview of the most important data points in terms of news.

These include an overview of consumption in each market, including details of the most popular news brands – traditional and online. The pages also contain statistics about the use of devices such as smartphones and tablets and the role of different social networks for news. Information is drawn from the 2021 Digital News Report survey using the methodology outlined, with the exception of population and internet levels which are drawn from the latest version of Internet World Statistics.

Data from India, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa are representative of younger English-speakers and not the national population, because it is not possible to reach other groups in a representative way using online polling. The survey was fielded in English in these markets (respondents had the option of selecting Hindi in India and Swahili in Kenya, but the majority selected English), and restricted to ages 18-50 in Kenya and Nigeria.

In some other markets, where internet penetration is lower, our data often represent younger and more affluent groups – even if it meets other nationally representative quotas. For all these reasons, one should be cautious in comparing some data points across markets where we know these limitations apply. In a few markets we do not show certain data points (such as paying for news) because we feel these could lead to misunderstandings or misleading comparisons. We have also signalled specific details about samples in a short note on the relevant page and also include the internet penetration rate on each.

In the Netherlands we conducted a repoll of brand reach numbers in late March 2021 due to a scripting error in the original poll. All other numbers are taken from the January/February poll. Due to a scripting error there are no 'Sources of News' data for 2014 in any market.

We have ordered the countries and markets by geography (Europe, Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Africa) and within each region countries are then ordered alphabetically – with the exception of UK at the start of the Europe section and the United States at the start of the Americas.

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Country and market data 2021