Editorial: Trust in Irish journalistic media brands remains stable
A new report on the state of the media in Ireland has revealed that ‘news avoidance’ is now at 47%, a significant increase from 41% in 2025 and among the highest increases over the past year globally.
This comes from the latest annual Digital News Report for Ireland 2026 (DNR 2026) and shows that Irish people continue to trust the major news brands, but they are losing trust in news generally. Ireland also remains a relatively strong market for paid news by international standards, with DNR 2026 data showing 22% paying for news online, but print and TV have continued to decline.
7% of Irish participants use AI chatbots for news, which is substantially more than in the UK (4%) and I think carries some dangers given how bad AI chatbots are for gathering information reliably. Overall trust in news fell sharply to 42%, down 9 points year-on-year which worryingly is among the biggest drops globally. This drop comes after a rebound in 2025 (51%) but is still substantially below the 46% found in 2024.
However, trust in Irish journalistic media brands remains stable in the 2026 report.
I would previously have seen news avoidance as a very serious issue but I can totally understand why people want to limit their news intake. For the last few years, most national and particularly international news has been very difficult to witness. The destruction of Gaza and Palestine, the war in Ukraine, the effects of the housing crisis here and the rise in racism, allied to almost every new monstrosity perpetrated by the US President Donald Trump makes watching and reading the news thoroughly depressing. There are now times when it’s prudent and smart to actively avoid some news or limit your intake - if only for your mental health.
We don’t cover most of these topics on these pages and it’s still really interesting and important to read about what happens in our city and county. We will try to bring as much positive news as we can, but that’s not always possible of course!
Verified news is more important than ever and it’s crucial that the Government continues to support journalism through €15m in funding for several schemes, including Local Democracy and Courts Reporting, News and Current Affairs Commercial Television, News Reporting, and Digital Transformation. The Cork Independent is part of the Local Democracy and Digital Transformation schemes.
Participation in the Local Democracy Scheme has allowed us to seriously extend our coverage of crucial local democracy institutions including city council meetings and local community safety policing meetings. We attended 2 community meetings this week and we would have attended a third if it hadn’t clashed with another meeting.
All we ask is that you continue to read our paper!