More people in Ireland now get their news online than on television, survey shows
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More people get their news online than on television in Ireland for the first time, and more of them than ever are paying for it — but concerns around what is real and what is fake online has risen sharply.
The annual Reuters Institute Digital News Report Ireland, published by media regulator Coimisiún na Meán, found more than a third of people had seen false or misleading information online in the past week on topics such as the Israel-Palestine conflict and on immigration.
Furthermore, a majority of media consumers (56%) say they are uncomfortable with news being produced “mostly by AI” with only “some human oversight”.
The researchers wrote: “This year’s survey was conducted in Ireland against a background of economic challenges, street protests, continuing wars in Gaza and Ukraine and local and European elections.
“In terms of the media, the very point of the public broadcaster RTÉ has been debated in public and in the Dáil as a payment scandal has unfolded since the summer of 2023. On top of financial worries, the media have had to face the challenges of rising misinformation and disinformation, relatively low levels of trust, and attacks by politicians, commentators, and members of the public.”
The data found one in five Irish people (19%) say they are “extremely interested” in the news, with one third saying they’ are “very interested" (34%) or “somewhat interested” (35%).
Compared to 2019 when 12% of people said they paid to access online news content, this has risen to 17% in 2024 and up two points on last year.
The report acknowledges the attracts 10% of regular news subscribers in Ireland, while there has generally been a 7% increase in the number of people aged 18-24 paying for digital news content.
In terms of trust in the news, 46% of Irish people say they trust most news most of the time, compared to 36% of people in the UK, 32% in the US and 39% across Europe generally.
The report finds trust in RTÉ’s news offering has risen slightly in the last year (up 1%) which is “particularly notable given the turbulence within RTÉ over the past year”.
In 2023, 64% of people said they were concerned about what is real and what is fake on the internet but this has risen to 71% this year, with people reporting seeing misleading or false information online about covid-19, the war in Ukraine, politics and climate change in the past week.
The researchers also note AI is “unleashing a new set of changes that could further reduce traffic to news websites and apps”, and media companies will need to be transparent about how they use AI in the future.
Under its remit, Coimisiún na Meán was granted powers under the EU’s Digital Services Act to regulate large online platforms and ensure they are abiding by obligations to protect users online.
Its media development commissioner Rónán Ó Domhnaill said: “As we can see in this year’s report, online platforms including social media continue to be a popular source of news, yet misinformation and the trustworthiness of sources are a real concern to news consumers in Ireland.”
He added such online platforms must address and mitigate the societal risks associated with misinformation and disinformation, and the regulator will ensure they abide by their legal responsibilities.