Women lead way: saturation/ negative effect of news being main reasons for disinterest
The trend of avoiding the news continues in Portugal – although with a slight decrease compared to 2024 – with women leading the way, according to the Digital News Report Portugal 2025 (DNRPT25) released on today.
More than a third (35%) of Portuguese people “say they avoid news frequently/ occasionally (in 2024 it was 37%) – and those that admit to frequently blanking it out are in the majority (70%), says the report – produced annually by OberCom – Observatório da Comunicação and published alongside the global report by RISJ – Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, at the University of Oxford, in the UK
According to the document, it is not only women who are disinterested in the news, but “people with low or medium education and those on low incomes.”
Tiredness with the amount of news (39%), saturation with war and conflict issues (38%) and the negative impact on mood (32%) are among the reasons given for actively avoiding news.
“These reasons vary according to gender and age: women and older people more often mention fatigue and emotional impact, while younger people highlight the lack of relevance of the news, the perception of polarisation, the feeling of powerlessness and the difficulty in following the content.”
The topic of war, particularly the conflict in Ukraine, “remains one of the main sources of information saturation,” according to the report.
“Fatigue with this topic is more pronounced in Europe (with Portugal above the European and global average), reflecting the effect of geographical proximity on news perception and consumption,” it explains.
Globally, four in 10 (40%) of people say they sometimes or often avoid the news – up from 29% in 2017 – this is the highest figure ever recorded in the DNR, and shows that the disinterest in Portugal is entirely in line with other countries.
Overall, global trust in the news (40%) has remained stable for the third consecutive year, although it is still four points lower than at the height of the pandemic, and means that the majority of people do not believe what they read/ hear on the television/ radio.
“Finland and Nigeria have the highest levels of overall trust (67% and 68%, respectively), while Greece (22%) and Hungary (22%) have the lowest,” according to the study.
“Respondents are clear that the best way for news organisations to increase trust would be to increase accuracy, transparency and original journalism, while reducing what many consider to be biased coverage,” the report adds.
Source: LUSA
