At a time when public scepticism in official news outlets is on the increase across the world, it is perhaps hardly surprising that a new survey has revealed that trust in the news has fallen to an all-time low globally – in fact the lowest since annual reports by the Reuters Institute began more than ten years ago.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, published this week (16 June), reveals that public trust worldwide is at 37%, three points down on a year ago. In the UK, that trust has fallen by five points to 30% – a massive 20 points lower than ten years ago.
According to the 2026 report, news audiences around the world are reacting with growing unease to successive episodes of political, economic and technological turbulence. Assumptions about the way the world works are being questioned as longstanding international alliances shift, the global trading system comes under strain and the basic shape of the post-war order appears uncertain.
Last year, the Reuters report highlighted relative stability in many of the indicators it has tracked for over a decade. The data this year point however to greater volatility, reflecting this heightened sense of uncertainty. The range of responses range from anxiety, disengagement and cynicism, but also openness to new sources and formats of news and a continued belief in what news at its best can offer.
It’s clear that the global media’s often biased reporting of world events, like the Israeli state’s genocide in Gaza, the jaundiced coverage of wars in Ukraine and Iran and the ongoing scapegoating and othering of refugees and immigrants is eroding people’s trust in news reporting – and little wonder. A slavish adherence to ‘impartiality’, where unequal arguments are given false equivalence, is also causing people to lose what little trust they had in the mainstream media and instead look for more reliable and even-handed news sources.
The survey also reveals that for the first time, social media and video networks are, on average across the markets covered, more popular than both TV and owned news websites and apps as sources of news. Growing numbers of people are also experimenting with AI chatbots as a new means of access. When online, people increasingly like to watch rather than read the news, often drawing on a wider range of sources and voices.
Now in its 15th year, the 2026 edition of the Digital News Report seeks to capture these global trends while also reflecting the variation of news habits and attitudes across countries and also within them. Some of this year’s report will make for unsettling reading for the mainstream media – and so it should – “but this is an especially unsettled time both for the news media sector and for the world at large,” says the report.
Good journalism still has a place though and is arguably more important than ever in the uncertain and dangerous world in which we currently live. It is of course one of the reasons why The Left Lane was set up in the first place. We believe that there is a real space in the media landscape for an online publication like ours – a socialist project that will not only seek to explain and make sense of events in an increasingly complex and unstable world, discuss solutions and a way forward, but one that will also provide opportunities for individuals from a range of backgrounds to develop skills as writers, commentators and journalists.
The latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report once again underlines the real and pressing need for what we do and why we will continue our vital work with our readers’ and contributors’ enthusiastic and loyal support.
Click here to find out full details of the Digital News Report 2026.
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