Leftwing audiences value publicly funded news organisations such as the ABC and SBS much more than rightwing audiences do, according to the latest digital news report.
The value of news from a public broadcaster varies greatly according to the political persuasion of the audience, with the left much more likely deem it to be important personally and socially (74%; 80%) than the centre (50%; 58%) and the right-wing (43%; 51%).
The Digital News Report Australia 2023, written by researchers at the University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre, is part of an international survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Almost two-thirds of Australians believe publicly funded media is “very” or “quite” important to society, the report released on Wednesday found.
Of those with high levels of education, 72% say public service news media is valuable to society, as do 69% of people with a high income.
However, among those respondents with low levels of education, only 47% think public media is important to society or to themselves.
The use of social media platforms to access news continues to rise, with TikTok news users saying they pay most attention to ordinary people or celebrities as news sources.
Conversely, those who use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for news are more focused on mainstream journalists and news organisations as sources of news.
Among online news brands, the Conversation (65%), Crikey.com (62%) and Guardian Australia (60%) continue to have larger proportions of left-leaning audiences, and Skynews.com.au (41%) has the largest proportion of right.
The release of the report was overshadowed by claims by Nobel peace laureate Maria Ressa that the institute is publishing flawed research that puts journalists and independent outlets at risk, particularly in the global south.
One of the world’s most prominent and respected journalists, Ressa said she resigned last year from the advisory board of the Reuters Institute because of concerns about how it compiles the report.
The Australian findings on the importance of public media reflect the ABC’s own figures, which say that more than 80% of Australians trust the ABC, compared with average trust of 57% for commercial media.
Researchers said the findings reflect Australians’ “appreciation for the commercial and political independence of the national broadcasters”.
The survey found Australians who consume a lot of news or are very interested in the news are more likely to value the role of the ABC and SBS: 73% compared with 49% of people with a low interest in news.
Respondents’ source of news determines how important they think public media is, with people who mainly get their news from social media the least likely to consider it to be important to them personally (41%) compared with people who access online news sources (69%).
Researchers said although the ABC is “a traditional political football” it has community support and we value our public news institutions more highly than audiences in other countries with strong publicly funded media such as the UK and Canada.
People who say they are concerned about misinformation are much more likely to consider public service media to be important to society compared with those who are not concerned, the online survey conducted in early 2023 found.
Matthew Ricketson, a journalism professor at Deakin University, said media scholars who say public service news is “fusty, old-fashioned and destined to fade at the dawn of the digital media age” have been proven wrong.
“Instead, the reverse has occurred as many public broadcasters proved themselves unexpectedly nimble in adapting to the possibilities created by new communication technologies,” Ricketson said in a contributing chapter in the report.
“During the same period, their commercial broadcast rivals have gradually lost audiences to online media and, especially, streaming services while the nation’s big newspaper companies have struggled to find a new business model to offset the loss in advertising revenue to standalone classified sites.”
Ricketson said the rise of social media and disinformation has weakened many people’s perception of the trustworthiness of the news media.
“At a time when one of the world’s most powerful media companies, News Corp, has shown itself to have cared less about truth than knowingly continuing to broadcast lies to retain their audience, public service media remains of critical importance,” he said.
The ABC and SBS were allocated a total of of $7.7bn over five years in the budget. The Albanese government has introduced guaranteed five-year funding for the public broadcasters.
