CNA remains most trusted news brand in Singapore: Reuters Institute report

SINGAPORE: Mediacorp’s CNA has been ranked the most trusted news brand in Singapore, according to an annual report on the state of digital news, published on Wednesday (Jun 15) by the Reuters Institute for Journalism based at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Channel 5 News, which broadcasts News Tonight, a daily television news bulletin on Mediacorp’s free-to-air English language channel, came in second, up one spot from last year. The Straits Times, owned by the newly established SPH Media Trust, slipped to third.

Channel 8 News, which broadcasts in Mandarin on another Mediacorp channel, remained in fourth position. BBC News moved up one place to round out the top five.

In all, Mediacorp has five news brands in the top 10 ranking on trust, including Mediacorp Radio News in sixth position and TODAY Online in eighth place.

CNA was also ranked the most trusted news brand in the same report published in 2020 and 2021. 

Overall, trust in the news in Singapore dipped slightly to 43 per cent following a bump in the year before due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report, "although it remains higher than levels seen prior to the pandemic". 

This dip mirrors the trend found in half of the 46 countries surveyed as part of this global report, which found that trust in the media went down slightly to 42 per cent globally from 44 per cent in the previous year for the same reason, the pandemic.

CNA ONLINE MOST FREQUENTLY USED NEWS SOURCE

CNA's website was also the most frequently used online news source, the latest yearly survey by the British research group showed.

News website Mothership shared the top spot with CNA in terms of weekly use, while The Straits Times' website came in third. 

However, the report noted that while Mothership had risen in terms of its reach, it “still ranks significantly lower in brand trust than the more established brands from SPH and Mediacorp”.

The report also noted that Singaporeans still got their news primarily from online sources, including a “heavy use” of a wide range of different social networks and messaging apps.

The report noted: "On the social media front, news consumption patterns seem to be changing, with those saying they use WhatsApp (39 per cent) and Facebook (39 per cent) for news largely stable, while those who use Telegram (18 per cent) and Instagram (17 per cent) for news are increasing. Telegram is particularly noteworthy, as it is becoming popular in Singapore but is now confronted by the spread of 'fake news' via chatgroups that attract thousands of followers."

NEWS CONSUMPTION DOWN GLOBALLY

Beyond Singapore, the report said that the combined impact of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the cost-of-living crisis has led to people switching off from the news.

“More broadly, we find that interest in news and overall news consumption has declined considerably in many countries,” said the report’s lead author and the institute’s senior research associate Nic Newman.

“We’re also seeing news fatigue setting in – not just around COVID-19 but around politics and a range of other subjects – with the number of people actively avoiding news increasing markedly.”

Across 46 countries surveyed and 93,000 participants, the report found that the share of people who said they actively avoided the news had increased from 29 per cent to 38 per cent since 2017. The numbers doubled in some countries, including Brazil and Britain.

Selective news avoiders gave a variety of reasons for their behaviour, although the chief factor was the repetitiveness of the news agenda, especially around politics and COVID-19, the report said.

Others said the news led to arguments they would rather avoid, or a feeling of powerlessness, while many young people said they found the news hard to understand or follow.

Mr Newman said the findings were “particularly challenging for the news industry”.

"Subjects that journalists consider most important, such as political crises, international conflicts and global pandemics, seem to be precisely the ones that are turning some people away," he wrote in the report.

Most of the study was completed before the invasion of Ukraine in February, but subsequent surveys in five countries found these issues had only deepened in the aftermath of the conflict.

Trust in the media fell in half the countries surveyed, and rose in just seven, the report said, although it mostly remains higher than before the COVID-19 crisis began. The United States showed the lowest level of trust at 26 per cent, tied with Slovakia.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is a research centre at the University of Oxford that tracks media trends. The Thomson Reuters Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Thomson Reuters, funds the Reuters Institute.

With agency reporting.