News avoidance is a threat to reader engagement and a growing concern, according to 72% of news leaders recently surveyed by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Highlighted previously in the 2022 Digital News Report from Reuters, this growing trend is typically a response to media coverage related to politics, climate change, inflation or coverage of the war in Ukraine, which leaves people feeling overwhelmed and powerless.
In the report Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and Predictions 2023, several approaches to counter news avoidance/fatigue are presented.
“Publishers say they plan to counter this with explainer content (94%), Q&A formats (87%), and inspirational stories (66%) considered important or very important this year. Producing more positive news (48%) was a less popular response. Research suggests that audiences want journalists to continue to cover difficult stories and that they also want more inspiration, a broader agenda, and more fun.”
