More Flemish people tend to avoid the news

A growing group of Flemish people avoids the news at least once in a while. The lower educated and the young do so more often than others. This is the conclusion of a news study by the VUB research group imec-SMIT.

On Wednesday, the research group published the Belgian part of an international study on news consumption by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. In Flanders, the researchers questioned about a thousand people.

One of the conclusions is that more Flemish people than before indicate that they avoid the news to a greater or lesser extent. In 2017, 48% of Flemish news users indicated that they avoid the news sometimes to often. This year, that has increased to 64%.

Research shows that ignoring the news once in a while "fits into a healthy news routine and functions as a protection mechanism when users feel mentally overwhelmed or overstrained by the news", the study says. 

For news users who only occasionally avoid the news, the negativity of the news and an abundance of coverage of politics and COVID-19 are the main motivations, according to the researchers. 

For frequent news avoiders, the situation is different. "For them, a lack of trust in the news is the third most important reason, indicating a deeper problem of people turning away from the news."

(TOM)

#FlandersNewsService

© BELGA PHOTO JASPER JACOBS