A new book looks at the audiences who never read the news. Co-author Dr Benjamin Toff says that newsrooms must think about fitting around the lives of busy, anxious and alienated people
News avoidance is a trend that has had the industry concerned for the last few years. In the last Reuters Institute Digital News Report, nearly half (41 per cent) of Britons said they sometimes or often avoided the news, citing mental health, negative news and information overload as some of the top reasons why.
But there is a smaller subset of audiences known as consistent news avoiders who say they consume news less than once a month or not at all. They make up about three percent of the population on average. But in countries like the US or the UK, where that percentage jumps to between six and seven, there are millions of ordinary people who would fall into this camp.
These consistent news avoiders are one of the main points of focus in a new book called Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism.
Consistent news avoiders tend to be socially and politically disadvantaged, such as women, younger people, and those from lower socioeconomic classes. They become, as a result, less informed and feel less able to follow politics and news coverage.