Trust in major brands but news avoidance grows

The annual Digital News Report for Ireland 2026 shows that Irish people continue to trust major news brands, but are losing trust in news more generally.

Down eight percentage points from last year, 42% of the adult population surveyed said that they trust most news “most of the time” which is a sharp decrease from 50% answering that same question last year.

The figures are included in the 12th edition of the annual report published in Cork today by Coimisiún na Meán.

The report, by the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, is the largest ongoing comparative study of news consumption in the world.

Despite the decline in trust in news, Irish people continue to trust major news brands for their information.

When asked about trusted sources of news, RTÉ News (71%) and local radio news (71%), emerge as the most trusted brands.

However, the increase in news avoidance is the highest it has ever been in Ireland at 47%.

When asked “if you find yourself actively trying to avoid news”, almost half (47%) of Irish adults said that they did, which is a six point increase from 41% last year.

Those who say they never avoid news is at 22%, down from 28% last year.

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Meanwhile, 69% of Irish respondents described ‘local newspapers’ as trustworthy, with the same percentage for The Irish Times (69%), 68% for the Irish Independent, and 67% for BBC News.

Sky News was next (66%), with Newstalk and the Irish Examiner both 65% and 64% citing Today FM and Virgin media as trustworthy.

There has been a slight decline in interest levels in news with 54% of Irish people saying they are ‘extremely or very interested’ in news, down from 56% in 2025, and 70% in the Covid-era of 2021.

In comparison, the rates of people who say they are ‘extremely or very interested’ in news is 37% in the UK, 48% in the US, and 44% as the European average.

Read the report in full here

Separately, when considering news sources, 51% say they can trust the news they personally consume.

42% trust ‘most news’, 31% trust news from search engines, 16% trust news from social media and 14% trust news from AI chatbots.

The figure for Irish people who have ‘trust in news’ in Ireland remains relatively high compared to the UK (31%), the European average (36%) and the US (26%).

When asked which platform is “your main source of news”, 31% of Irish respondents said television, with the same percentage citing online (excluding social media).

For offline brands accessed by users, RTÉ TV news and RTÉ radio news held steady with 2025 figures, standing at 44% and radio news at 29% respectively. Sky News was next for TV users (27%).

For users of digital news sources, when asked which of the following brands “you have used to access news online in the traditional media”, RTÉ News Online (37%) is the most accessed, a one point increase on 2025.

The Journal.ie was next, at 29%, a three point increase on 2025, and 23% cited the Irish Independent online.

Younger people get majority of news from social media

There are growing gaps between the under 35s and over 35s in relation to the sources of their news, with 14% of 18 to 24-year-olds reporting using AI chatbots, compared to 5% of over 35s, and 65% of those aged 18 to 24 use influencers as a source of news

Older audiences are more inclined to use traditional sources of news, including TV (61%), radio (41%) and printed news (22%).

Younger audiences get the majority of their news from social media, (60%) and are listening to podcasts (17%).

When asked for their thoughts about online news, 71% of respondents said they are concerned about what is real and what is fake online, representing an increase from 68% to this same question last year.

A new question in this year’s report related to public service media with Irish adults asked “if you think that news provided by public service broadcasters has a positive or negative effect on life in your country?”

In response, 42% of Irish respondents said it has a positive effect, with 20% saying it had a negative effect.

The youngest age categories were most supportive of public service media, with 49% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 50% of 25-34-year-olds saying it had a positive effect.

Media Development Commissioner at Coimisiún na Meán Rónán Ó Domhnaill said that while Irish audiences remain “interested in news, there has been a significant decline in their trust in news generally, while trust in major news brands has remained steady”.

Responding to the findings of the online survey of 2,053 people, he said that “most people trust the news they personally consume, but there is greater scepticism about the news media environment overall”.

He added that they are “encouraged” by the positive views that Irish people express towards public service media.

The figure of 42% is “12 percentage points higher than in the UK (30%), and six percentage points above the European average (36%),” he noted.

The findings “underline the need” for ongoing attention to the “sustainability of the media sector, media literacy”, and the “evolving role” of platforms and technologies in “shaping the news media environment”.

The ambition of Coimisiún na Meán is to “develop and maintain a media landscape that consumers can trust,” he stated.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Ó Domhnaill said that what is coming across is that people are disengaging from news as a whole, and that while there is trust in Irish media, there is a lack of trust about the environment in which people are getting that news from.

“They do consume it, it, you know, they do look at it, they do watch it,” he said.

“It’s more a question of where they look at it and where they watch it. So we have seen a decline, for example, in viewership of television news, but then we’ve seen an increase on news access from news websites.

“It’s not enough for trusted brands to simply focus on news being trustworthy anymore, he said, they must also think about situating that news in an environment, such as apps like TikTok, Facebook or Whatsapp, where trust in that source isn’t as strong.”

The largest group who had a positive view on public service media were under 35’s, Mr Ó Domhnaill said.

He said that while there is an ongoing decline in people paying their licence fee, public service media will survive in the long term is if there is public support for it, which he believes there is.

“It’s quite apparent, I think, that there’s no such thing as a healthy functioning democracy without a healthy functioning public service.”

The report also reveals an increase in Irish people paying for their news, with more than one in five signed up to subscriptions.

Digital news subscription figures in Ireland now stand at 22%, which is a two-point increase from this time last year, up from 9% from ten years ago in 2016.

Director of DCU Institute for Media, Democracy and Society Professor Jane Suiter said: “Despite the worrying trend of declining trust in news, this year’s survey finds that Irish people continue to trust major brands, including our national state broadcaster. The strong trust in local outlets also speaks to the importance of a continuing robust regional news offering in the country.”

She described as “concerning” that news avoidance continues to increase.

Research for the Digital News Report is undertaken by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and analysis of the Irish data is provided by the DCU Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society.