Online overtakes TV as Ireland’s most popular source of news
Irish people aren’t losing interest in current affairs but the way they keep up with current events is changing. For the first time, online has become the dominant source of information according to the annual Digital News Report Ireland. According to figures released today 33% of respondents preferred to get their online, compared to 31% who preferred television.
Overall interest in news remains strong with some 88% of respondents saying they were either ‘extremely’, ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ interested in news. This is higher than in the UK (82%), US (84%), and the European average (85%).
The study is part of an international undertaken by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and used data gathered in 47 markets. Ireland’s participation was handled by Coimisiún na Meán, which regulates broadcasters, on-demand services and online media, and supporting media development.
An analysis of the Irish data was conducted by researchers from the DCU Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo).
Trust in news declined slightly overall, however RTÉ and The Irish Times remain the most trusted outlets and held their position relative to last year’s report.
The report revealed the number of consumers who paid to access news content increased in 2024. This was especially true for 18 to 24-year-olds, where an increase of seven percentage points to 26% from 19%, in people paying for digital news content was recorded.
Almost half (44%) of respondents said they have read or heard a ‘large’ or ‘moderate’ amount about AI. A further 41% said they knew ‘a small amount’ and 10% say they know ‘nothing at all’. More than half (56%) of consumers said thy were uncomfortable with news being produced ‘mostly by AI’ with only ‘some human oversight’.
The report also found evidence of real concern about what is real online, with 71% expressing concern about misinformation and disinformation up seven percentage points since 2023.
Respondents said they had seen the most false or misleading information in the previous week about the Israel-Palestine conflict (38%). This increased to 43% among the under-35s. Coverage of immigration was close behind, with 37% (38% for over-35s).
Media Development Commissioner for Coimisiún na Meán Rónán Ó Domhnaill said: “It is encouraging to see that overall trust in news remains high in Ireland compared to other international regions, this year 46% of respondents reported that they can trust most news most of the time. The continuing trend toward news consumption online presents both opportunities and challenges for the media in Ireland. This year’s Digital News Report Ireland serves as a valuable dataset, to help ensure that the transition to news online is implemented in a structured and successful manner.”
Prof Colleen Murrell of the FuJo Institute said: “Misinformation and disinformation are growing and in this report, we ask a series of questions to establish how difficult people find it to verify the online news that they read. In order to unpack the data on current media issues, we often dig deeper to understand the differences caused by age, gender and education. While it is usual to find that younger people are more at ease with online challenges, older people often surprise with their ability to adapt to new sources of information.”
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