(Montreal) Trust in the news media continues to decline in Canada. Fewer than two in five Canadians trust journalistic information in 2024, according to a report published by the Center for Media Studies.
Some 39 per cent of Canadians trust “most news,” a drop of one percentage point from last year, according to the document.
The indicator has been declining for years. This is the “fundamental problem” of the media sector, according to the director of the Center for Media Studies, Colette Brin.
This is the lowest percentage since figures began being compiled in 2016. That year, 55% of citizens surveyed trusted most news.
However, 73% of Canadians continue to follow the news every day, the survey reveals.
The Center for Media Studies report is the Canadian installment of the Digital News Report, an international survey conducted by Reuters’ Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University that brings together similar data from 47 countries.
Canada falls below the average for the proportion of citizens who trust the majority of news (40%), but remains well above the United States (32%) and France (30%).
In light of this information, Mme Brin says trust in the media is a global problem. “We can’t say: ‘It’s the fault of the local media’ because it’s a general trend.”
Among French speakers, the confidence rate increases from 49 to 46%. It remains much lower among English speakers at 37%, the same proportion as in 2023.
“Anglophones are more concerned with distinguishing truth from falsehood in information,” explains Roland-Yves Carignan, professor at the Media School in digital media and journalism. Conversely, “there is a stronger collective among French speakers. People trust information more. »
Declining indicators
Several problems persist in the media environment, according to Mme Strand. The question of financing is one. The enormous mass of information published and shared, increasingly cumbersome, is another. “In general, many indicators are declining, and we see that this continues.”
Roland-Yves Carignan agrees. “People complain that the amount of information out there is becoming overwhelming,” he says.
According to him, a reduction in the circulation of information and a regulation of this information would help increase the population’s trust in the media. We must therefore “rethink the structure of digital media, which is, I agree, a very vast program”.
Television remains the most popular way to get news in Canada, with 38% of respondents following the news this way, a drop of two percentage points from 2023.
In 2024, news sites and apps were used more for information than last year, at 30%, an increase of three percentage points.
The slow descent of television as an information tool continues. “We are moving from information read to information seen more and more,” says Mr. Carignan.
Social networks were the main source of access to online news for 23% (a drop of four percentage points) of respondents, and 16% for French speakers (a drop of 7 percentage points), the highest percentage low since 2018.
Meta’s news blocking of Canadian and foreign news on Facebook and Instagram has been in place since August 2023 in response to the adoption of the Online News Act which would have required it to pay royalties to Canadian media.
Specialized media are not affected by the blocking.
Although its effects are difficult to identify, blocking Meta news would not have had a devastating impact. Since the start of the blockage, news sites have observed an increase in their traffic, indicates Mme Strand. “But not in a way that compensates for losses [financières] which were incurred with the blockage”. The negative impacts are stronger on local media and indigenous media, she adds. They are also making themselves felt more in the French-speaking media.
Interestingly, the proportion of Canadians who get their news on Instagram increased by 3 percentage points compared to 2023 to reach 13%. Conversely, fewer Canadians get their news on Facebook than last year (25% in 2024 versus 29% in 2023).
Is it worrying that so many Canadians get their news on platforms where news sites are banned?
It is difficult to answer this question, says Roland-Yves Carignan, but one thing is certain, the information on Facebook and Instagram is not necessarily bad. “The media’s definition of information may not be the same as that of the public,” he says.
You still have to ensure that it is of quality, reliable and verified, he says.
Regarding artificial intelligence (AI), 52% of survey respondents said they were uncomfortable with news produced primarily by AIs with human supervision. However, only 27% of respondents are uncomfortable with AI assisting a human journalist.
This is positive according to Colette Brin. “There is a value placed [par le public] to human editorial work, it’s encouraging.”
The Center for Media Studies will hold a panel discussion Monday on the findings of its report.
The survey was conducted online by the firm YouGov. A total of 2,014 Canadians, including 430 French-speaking Canadians, were questioned about their consumption and perception of news media. Some 1,026 additional French-speaking participants were surveyed in a self-contained sample.