A majority of Irish people are either extremely or very interested in news, according to the annual Digital News Report Ireland 2025, published by The Reuters Institute .
The Irish Report, which is in its eleventh year, shows that most people in Ireland (56%)across all age groups are interested in news. This represents the highest level of interest in news since 2022, up 3 points from last year, but down from a peak of 70% in 2021, during the Covid pandemic. This enthusiasm for news puts Irish audiences ahead of their UK (39%) and US (51%) counterparts and ahead of the European average (45%).
When asked about trusted sources of news, regional and local radio (72%), RTÉ News (72%), Newstalk(66%) and Today FM (66%) emerge as some of the most the most trusted brands in Ireland, underlining the continued importance of radio as both national and local news sources for Irish audiences.
Key findings from this year’s Report include:
Interest in news – Interest in news in Ireland remains robust compared to other countries. 22% of Irish people say they are ‘extremely interested’ in news, with 34% saying they are ‘very interested’ and 33% saying they are ‘somewhat interested’. Just 3% say they are ‘not at all interested’ in news.
Trust in news – Overall, Irish audiences trust news more when compared to other countries. When asked if they trust the news most of the time, 50% of respondents in Ireland ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’, compared to 35% in the UK, 30% in the US and 39% for merged data from Europe.
Trust in brands – Traditional news outlets continue to perform well when Irish audiences are asked about their trust in brands. RTÉ News (72%), local or regional radio (72%) are the most trusted brands. 70% of Irish respondents described the Irish Times as trustworthy, with the same percentage for BBC News, 68% for the Irish Independent and 66% for each of Newstalk, Today FM and Sky News.
Paying for News –The Report shows that 20% of people in Ireland are now paying for news, up from 7% in 2015 and a 3-point increase from last year.
Artificial Intelligence – Audiences’ attitudes to the use of AI for news are changing. Last year, those ‘very’ and ‘somewhat’ comfortable with news mainly produced by AI with some human oversight were 15%. This has increased to 19% this year, with under-35s almost twice as comfortable asover-35s when considering the same measure.
Disinformation and Misinformation – When asked for their thoughts about online news, 68% of Irish respondents say they are concerned about what is real and what is fake on online. All age cohorts show concern about fake information online, with the highest rate (72%) among those aged 65+ and the lowest rate (62%) among those aged 18-24. The report shows that a third of the responders use Facebook (36%) and YouTube (30%) for news each week. Instagram(19%) and WhatsApp (19%) are used by around a fifth, while TikTok (16%) remains ahead of X at 12%.
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