What's Next, Now: January 2023
This month, our crystal ball predicts rising news avoidance, a make-or-break moment for air travel, a battery-fueled future, and more.
Though news engagement has been infiltrating social media platforms over the past few years, there’s also been a recent uptick in the opposite: news avoidance, according to a report by Reuters Institute. The news cycle has remained consistently heavy of late, with stories on war, a struggling economy, and illness, amongst other topics, causing many to shut it all out.
News avoidance grew over the past year, with conventional news outlets like CNN and MSNBC losing large quantities of their viewership. Social media interactions with news articles in the U.S. also fell 14% last year compared to 2021. But not all outlets are dropping viewers at the same rate — Fox News lost just 1% of prime time viewership in total for the year.
Supporting this trend, a 2022 study out of Texas Tech University reports that watching the news too often can have a negative impact on both physical and mental well-being. In addition, it’s been reported that over-consumption of disaster news can cause symptoms of PTSD in children.
Though news may be in trouble, engagement with topics such as sports, true crime, and entertainment continues to climb. This may be a sign viewers are looking for a way to escape reality and the somber news stories accompanying it. Some have referred to news avoidance as an epidemic, but it may be just what the doctor ordered. Brands should be aware that consumers may be starting to look to a weekend of shutting out the news as their new form of self-care.
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