Digital News Report 2021

Digital News Report 2021

Overview

This year's report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 92,000 online news consumers in 46 markets including India, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria, Colombia and Peru for the first time.

The report looks at the impact of coronavirus on news consumption and on the economic prospects for publishers. It looks at progress on new paid online business models, trust and misinformation, local news, impartiality and fairness in news coverage. | Start reading

Explore the most recent edition of the Digital News Report in this link.

Read the executive summary

The pandemic has shown the value of accurate and reliable information at a time when lives are at stake, writes lead author Nic Newman. 

Perceptions of fair news coverage among different groups

By Richard Fletcher

Impartiality unpacked – a study of four countries

By Craig T. Robertson

Local news unbundled – where audience value still lies

By Anne Schulz

How do people think about the financing of the commercial news media?

By Richard Fletcher and Rasmus Nielsen

How and why do consumers access news on social media?

By Simge Andı 

Highlights from countries

India. 73% of our respondents access news through smartphones. Social media access is high with 53% using WhatsApp and YouTube for news.
Indonesia. Trust in the news is relatively low with 39% saying that they trust the news in general. 37% say they trust the news on search engines and 31% trust the news on social media.
Colombia. Facebook (67%) and WhatsApp (45%) are the two leading platforms where Colombians say they use to find, consume and share news.
Nigeria. 84% of our respondents say they use smartphones to access news, while only 41% say the same for computers, 11% for tablets.

Video summary in 2 minutes

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Previous reports: 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012
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Country reports in national languages

AUSTRIA: Digital News Report Network Austria | AUSTRALIA: News and Media Research Centre, University of Canberra | BELGIUM: SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel | CANADA: Centre d'études sur les médias | CROATIA: University of Zagreb | GERMANY: Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung | NETHERLANDS: Commissariaat voor de Media | PORTUGAL: Observatório da Comunicação | SPAIN: Center for Internet Studies and Digital Life, Universidad de Navarra
 
Published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
 

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This report can be reproduced under the Creative Commons licence CC BY.  For more information please go to this link.
Supplementary report

'The relevance of impartial news in a polarised world'. A report by JV Consulting commissioned by the Reuters Institute.

Read report