What Are the Main Reasons People Switch off the News?

Four in ten people say that they avoid the news at least sometimes, according to the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2025, published Tuesday. This is according to a survey of nearly 100,000 people across 48 countries.

Of these, 39 percent said that they purposefully turned away from news because it has a negative effect on their mood, while 31 percent said they feel worn out by the sheer amount of news that there is. A similar share said that there is too much coverage of war and conflict (29 percent) or politics (29 percent) in the news. Respondents were able to select multiple answers out of ten possible options.

According to the report, younger respondents were more likely to say that they feel powerless in the face of existential issues such as economic insecurity and climate change, that the news doesn’t feel relevant to their lives or that it can lead to arguments. Under-35s were also far more likely to have said that the news is too hard to understand. In Malaysia, Switzerland and Thailand, 19-24 percent of under 35 year old respondents who at least occasionally avoid the news, said this was due to the issue of it being too hard to follow. In the U.S., 13 percent of under 35 years old news avoiders said the same.