Most Kiwis spending at least 20 minutes a day on the news
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
Most New Zealanders spend at least 20 minutes a day reading, watching or listening to the news, according to a survey commissioned by the News Publishers’ Association.
The survey of 1520 adults by pollster The Research Agency (TRA) also reported that 80% of respondents trusted the news they consumed that was produced by local journalists.
That finding is much more flattering than the result of separate research published by the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), which said last month that the proportion of people voicing trust in news fell from 42% last year to only 33% this year.
The AUT survey also reported that 75% of respondents said they were actively avoiding the news to at least some extent, up from an already-high 69% last year.
News Publishers’ Association (NPA) spokesperson Andrew Holden said it believed the very different levels of reported trust reflected the questions people had been asked.
“If you ask people a ‘generic question’ about whether they trust the media, government or business, the answer tends to be negative.
“But when you ask specifically about news organisations the person has a connection with, the result is different.”
Radio, TV and print and online news services all generated a trust rating of at least 85%, while only 48% reported trust in news found on social media, according to TRA’s survey.
About 93% of people said they accessed the news at least once a day, and the proportion of people who said they spent more than 20 minutes during a typical a day consuming news was 57%, the NPA said.
About 37% of those polled spent more than 30 minutes each day keeping abreast of the news, and 12% reported typically spending more than an hour a day on the news.
Holden said the NPA had commissioned the survey to help inform debate about the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill that is currently being considered by Media Minister Paul Goldsmith.
The bill would effectively compel internet search company Google, social media giant Meta and potentially some other large digital giants to pay publishers for news that was accessed or shared through their platforms.
The former government’s expectations was that would provide several tens of millions of dollars a year to help fund journalism, however, the current Government’s position on the legislation remains equivocal.
The NPA-funded research concluded that local news content added value and contributed to trust in search results and social media.
The research underlined the media industry’s argument that news reported by New Zealand journalists was of significant value to international technology companies, Holden said.
“It's a further reason for the Government to proceed with the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill which is intended to bring tech companies to the negotiating table,” he said.
The NPA said its research followed similar research in Switzerland.
That research, conducted last year by the University of Zurich and consulting firm Fehr Advice, was used by the media in Switzerland to justify an argument that Google should pay them 154 million Swiss francs (NZ$280m) a year in licensing fees.