The Reuters Institute Digital News Report on news usage in an international comparison was published for the nineth time in a row. The German part of the study was conducted by Dr. Sascha Hölig and Prof. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink with the assistance of Julia Behre.
You can download the full report here (pdf)
Independent Journalism Less Important among Younger People
The German findings of the international “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020” on news usage show that the majority of adult online users in Germany believe that independent journalism is important for the functioning of a society (79%). The differences in opinion among the age groups are striking. While almost 90 percent of those over 55 consider independent journalism important (88%), this figure is only 56 percent in the 18 to 24 age group. Overall, almost one in nine of this age group considers independent journalism to be unimportant (11%) and 15% have no opinion on it. These are the findings of the Reuters Institute Digital News Reports, whose German partial study was compiled by the Leibniz Institute for Media Research in Hamburg. The study is based on a total of 80,155 respondents from 40 countries on six continents.
Hölig, S.; Hasebrink, U. (2020): Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020 – Ergebnisse für Deutschland [Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020 – Findings for Germany]. Assisted by Julia Behre. Hamburg: Verlag Hans-Bredow-Institut, June 2020 (Working Papers of the HBI No. 50)