@richardfletcher.bsky.social
Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Lead researcher + co-author of the Digital News Report. www.richardfletcher.me
How harmful is GenAI around elections? Will it trigger a misinformation apocalypse and upend elections?
I am happy to finally be able to share @sachaltay.bsky.social & my answers to these and other questions on which we have been working for a year and which is now out via @knightcolumbia.org
🚨 Now out in Nature Human Behaviour 🚨
We show that following the news on WhatsApp or Instagram (N = 3,395 🇫🇷🇩🇪) increases current affairs knowledge, participants’ ability to discern true from false news stories, awareness of true news stories, as well as trust in the news.
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
The success of these tools will largely depend on how keen audiences are to use them in the first place, and there are big regional and demographic differences. www.niemanlab.org/2025/06/ai-p...
24.06.2025 18:13 — 👍 9 🔁 8 💬 1 📌 1
🚨 Have you explored our Digital News Report 2025? Here are five figures you may have missed
1️⃣ 47% in our global sample consider politicians and online influencers as a major misinformation threat. The percentage for politicians is higher in Spain and the US (57%)
More here buff.ly/pHwz59E
News is too much and too negative according to growing shares of the audience.
In 2025, 40% say they sometimes or often avoid the news (up from 29% in 2017). Switzerland & Germany right on trend.
Why?
• 39%: “negatively affects my mood”
• 31%: “worn out by the amount”
• 30%: “too much conflict”
News consumers are increasingly veering towards social media and video platforms for their news over traditional news sources.
This is one of the key findings of the latest @reutersinstitute.bsky.social’s Digital News Report, published today: ow.ly/ukUa50WaCS7
NEW: Another watershed media moment - social media overtakes TV as a source of news in the US for the first time.
The march of the "news influencers" continues.
Survey taken after Trump inauguration. One of many top findings in huge Reuters Institute study.
www.theguardian.com/media/2025/j...
Thanks for sharing, Hannes!
17.06.2025 05:39 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
“Alternative media voices [often] appeal to audiences that news publishers have been keen to engage with but [are] seen as the biggest [misinformation] threat worldwide along with national politicians”Mitali Mukherjee writes in intro to 2025 DNR reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news... 1/7
17.06.2025 05:32 — 👍 9 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Our Digital News Report 2025 is out!
📊48 markets
🌏Almost 100K respondents
📰Key headline: Audiences lean into video news and influencers, raising misinformation concerns and new dilemmas for publishers
📱Explore now buff.ly/xLP67Tg
🧵Findings in thread #DNR25
Thanks Curd!
16.06.2025 22:25 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
So honored and grateful to have received The Wolfgang Donsbach Outstanding Article of the Year Award from the #ICA25 @icajsd.bsky.social for a paper with my colleagues from the @reutersinstitute.bsky.social Trust in News Project: reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/reuters...
16.06.2025 22:04 — 👍 72 🔁 12 💬 3 📌 0Congratulations also to Tali Aharoni who received the #ICA25 Outstanding Dissertation in Journalism Studies Award for her thesis on 'The Ecology of News (Dis)trust'.
16.06.2025 16:04 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The published article, 'Ritual Reinforcement: Habit, Emotion, and Identity as Attributes of Trust in News', is published open access in Journalism Studies - and was part of our Trust in News project. #ICA25 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
16.06.2025 16:04 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Very proud to receive the #ICA25 Wolfgang Donsbach Outstanding Journal Article of the Year Award for our paper on how habit, emotion and identity relate to trust in news, led by @amyrossarguedas.bsky.social. Thank you to @icajsd.bsky.social.
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/reuters...
🚨 Mark your calendars! 🚨
Our Digital News Report 2025 will be published on Tues 17 June.
This year’s report is based on a survey of almost 100,000 news consumers from 48 markets and will be presented at six global events with these 15 speakers
All you need to know in this thread
buff.ly/WTfoMls
Final @reutersinstitute.bsky.social presentation at #ICA25 today.
@amyrossarguedas.bsky.social with Digital News Report data on who listens to podcasts, as part of a panel on amplifying communication research through podcasts.
More info and abstracts here: reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/here-ar... #ICA25
14.06.2025 13:38 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
3. @felixsimon.bsky.social and Ralph Schroeder in a panel on what currently know (and don't know) about AI in journalism. #ICA25
14.06.2025 13:38 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
2. @academiuhhh.bsky.social @atrimukherjee.bsky.social me and @antoniskalog.bsky.social on the effect of social media vs TV in reducing news use gaps. #ICA25
14.06.2025 13:34 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Three @reutersinstitute.bsky.social presentations at #ICA25 today.
1. @waqasejaz.bsky.social Mary Sandford and me on the link between news use, climate anxiety and pro-environment behaviour across 8 countries.
More info about @reutersinstitute.bsky.social presentations at #ICA25 here: reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/here-ar...
13.06.2025 14:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
2. Tali Aharoni, me & @rasmuskleis.bsky.social with a poster on a five wave panel study in 🇬🇧 on the link between news use and trust in news in the first weeks of the COVID pandemic. #ICA25
13.06.2025 14:04 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Two #ICA25 presentations from @reutersinstitute.bsky.social researchers today.
1. For the early risers, me @felixsimon.bsky.social @waqasejaz.bsky.social & @rasmuskleis.bsky.social on what variables are associated with positive/negative attitudes towards the use of generative AI in news in 🇬🇧🇺🇸🇩🇰🇦🇷🇯🇵🇫🇷
Check out the details of the @reutersinstitute.bsky.social #ICA25 presentations here.
12.06.2025 14:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
At the @icahdq.bsky.social #ICA25 conference, though admittedly only in spirit.
Proud to be working with co-authors on two pieces of work presented there, one led by @richardfletcher.bsky.social on what shapes public attitudes to AI in news and one led by Tali Aharoni on trust.
Great write-up of our media + information literacy intervention funded by the @ssrc.org´s Mercury project
www.ssrc.org/mercury-proj...
partners: Bihar´s BRLPS & Dataleads.
@sumitra.bsky.social @priyadarshi-amar.bsky.social Florian Sichart
Looking forward to seeing and testing more of these!
Last Saturday, Linda Eggert and I were delighted to welcome a group of 30 fantastic speakers and guests for a symposium on AI agents at Balliol College, thanks to the support of the Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute. Summary report later this summer, some first impressions…
29.05.2025 19:48 — 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1Pew research finds that the vast majority of news influencers are still using X, and are more likely to use it than Bluesky (even left-leaning influencers). They are more likely to be regular posters on X, too.
29.05.2025 16:35 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
“Most presidential ads were targeted toward parties’ own supporters […] we found no detectable effects of removing political ads on political knowledge, polarization […] candidate favorability, and turnout.”
www.nber.org/papers/w33818
