More Swiss turning away from news, report finds

The authors of this year's Reuters Digital News Report said a major reason for news avoidance is the sheer volume of information available. Keystone / Valentin Flauraud

More people in Switzerland are actively avoiding the news, a study suggests.

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According to the Reuters Digital News Report published on Monday, 36% of Swiss people refrain from consuming news at least some of the time.

This is three percentage points more than last year, it said. But compared to before the coronavirus pandemic in 2019, this represents an increase of 10%. The figures for Switzerland were compiled by the Research Center for the Public Sphere and Society (FÖG) at the University of Zurich.

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Swiss people with a lower level of education tend to avoid the news more than those with a medium or higher level of education. The proportion of “news avoiders” is also higher among women (39%) than among men (33%), the researchers found.

There are also differences in age. About a third of people under 25 and over 55 stated that they avoid news often or occasionally, while the proportion was higher in the age group in between. According to the report’s authors, a major reason for avoiding the news is the sheer volume of information that is available.

Declining interest

Interest in news has also been declining in Switzerland. In 2024, 48% of respondents said they were very interested in news. This was two percentage points more than in 2023, but 11% less than in 2016.

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The annual Digital News Report gives insights into different aspects of media use, based on a representative surveys carried out in several countries. Over 2,000 people were surveyed in Switzerland. The poll was conducted by The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.

Adapted from German by DeepL/dkk/sb

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