10 hours ago
Over half of Irish people interested in news, two-thirds worried about online disinformation
More than half (56%) of Irish people are extremely or very interested in the news, higher than the European average, with local news brands the most trusted for Irish audiences, a new report has found.
According to the Digital News Report Ireland 2025, published by media regulator Coimisiún na Meán, enthusiasm for news among people in Ireland is "robust" and higher than audiences in the UK (39%), the European average (45%), and the US (51%).
The majority of Irish people view traditional news outlets as their most trusted sources for news.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of those who participated in the research, carried out by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, with analysis of Irish data provided by DCU's Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo), listed local or regional radio as their most trusted news source, on par with RTÉ on 72%, and followed closely by local or regional newspapers on 71%.
The report also noted that 20% of people in Ireland are now paying for news, up three percentage points on the figure recorded in the Digital News Report Ireland Report from last year.
As for the way in which people here get their news, 58% said they had viewed the news on television during the week before the study was conducted. The same percentage said they had got their news from online media, excluding social media and blogs.
Nearly half of people (47%) said they had used social media to consume their news, followed by radio (36%), printed newspapers (22%), podcasts (12%), and AI chatbots (5%).
The percentage of Irish audiences getting their news from podcasts (12%) was also higher than in the UK (7%) and the European average (9%), but lower than the US (15%).
Disinformation
On the topic of disinformation and misinformation online, more than two-thirds of Irish people (68%) said they were concerned about what is real and what is fake on on the internet, with this concern expressed across all age cohorts.
Commenting on the report, media development commissioner at Coimisiún na Meán, Rónán Ó Domhnaill, said it was "encouraging to see that interest in news remains high in Ireland when compared internationally, even as the formats used to consume news continue to change.
"We are heartened to see the continuing trend of the Irish public's unique and longstanding relationship with radio, which remains a cornerstone of Ireland's media landscape.
"It is also important to see the trust Irish people place in local news sources, with local radio and local newspapers among the most trusted brands for Irish audiences," he added.
