Latest news with #ReutersInstitutefortheStudyofJournalism
Indian Express
8 hours ago
- Indian Express
‘They annoyed me so I turned them off': Why phone users are turning off news alerts
For many people, a mobile notification announces the latest in the world — from sports to politics and everything in between. But new research is showing what many already believe: an average user gets too many alerts. The sheer scale of 'alert fatigue' is pushing people to actively turn off news alerts, spooked by the grim nature of news or the misleading nature of some push notifications. The research also showed mobile notifications from aggregators, often powered by artificial intelligence, are now one of the main ways one receives breaking news. Mobile-majority countries in Africa and Asia, such as Kenya and India, lead the way. As users face an avalanche of news updates whenever they log on to their social media accounts, many are simply trying to actively avoid news. A large majority (79 per cent) of phone users have either actively disabled news alerts or never received them because 'they say they get too many or they are not relevant to their lives,' according to the Digital News Report 2025 from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. One respondent said news alerts 'annoyed me, so I turned them off', while others were more concerned about the depressing nature of the news being pushed. 'I turned off all my news apps and sites after (US President Donald) Trump was elected', says one liberal respondent from the United States, according to the report. Another said they 'switched off notifications again because it's emotionally distressing'. Researchers studying the data found a link: those who say they 'often avoid' the news are less likely to sign up in the first place and more likely to disable them later. It wasn't always about the sheer scale of round-the-clock global developments. Respondents also found alerts got on their nerves in some other ways. 'Sometimes the headlines are misleading when you select the article. Sometimes you have to pay to view the content, especially on Apple News,' said one UK respondent. While news organisations continued to depend on push notifications and newsletters to deeply engage with users who have already signed up, people continued to depend on search (45 per cent weekly use) and social media (43 per cent) for finding the news content of their choice.
Mint
17 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
AI tracker: Turning to chatbots for news updates
A recent survey reveals a growing trend of people using AI chatbots like ChatGPT for news updates, especially among younger demographics. The report highlights the increasing integration of AI in everyday information gathering, while also showcasing advancements in AI-driven personal shopping with the launch of Alta's innovative stylist app. People are increasingly turning to generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT to follow day-to-day news, a recent media report has found. The yearly survey from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found 'for the first time' that significant numbers of people were using chatbots to get headlines and updates. Seven percent of people report using AI to find news, according to the Institute's poll of 97,000 people in 48 countries carried out by YouGov, but the proportion is higher among the young, at 12% of under-35s and 15% under-25s. Many more used AI to summarise (27%), translate (24%) or recommend (21%) articles, while almost one in five asked questions about current events. AI fashion stylist New york based fashion tech startup Alta announced that it has raised $11 million in seed funding to build 'the next generation of personal shopping and styling' powered by AI. Alta's core product is an AI stylist/personal shopper that creates shopping and outfit recommendations based on a user's closet, lifestyle, budget, occasion, and weather. The app leverages over a dozen proprietary multimodal generative AI models trained on fashion data, a press release from the company said. Users can also try recommended outfits on their virtual avatar—including mixing and matching shoppable items with items from their own closets.
TimesLIVE
2 days ago
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
US news consumers turn to Joe Rogan, away from traditional sources: report
Prominent podcasters like Joe Rogan are playing a bigger role in news dissemination in the US, as are AI chatbots, contributing to the further erosion of traditional media, according to a report released on Tuesday. In the week following the January 2025 US presidential inauguration, more Americans said they got their news from social and video networks than from TV and news websites and apps — the first time that shift has occurred, the report said. Traditional US news media increasingly risks being eclipsed by online personalities and creators, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said in its annual Digital News Report, which is based on an online survey of almost 100,000 people in 48 markets, including the US. The trend is particularly acute among young Americans. Over half of people under age 35 in the US are relying on social media and video networks as their main source for news, the report found. Across the countries that the report surveyed, 44% of people aged 18 to 24 said these networks are their main source of news. One-fifth of a sampled group of Americans came across news or commentary from podcaster Rogan in the week following the presidential inauguration, the report found, while 14% of respondents said they had come across former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson discussing or commenting on news during that period. Carlson now generates content across multiple social media and video networks.
Ya Biladi
2 days ago
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
Internet tops as news source in Morocco, but trust remains low
The Digital News Report 2025, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, highlights notable changes in Morocco's media landscape. After years of criticism over limited press freedom and state control of media outlets, some positive signs are beginning to emerge. In recent months, Morocco has seen the release of detained and exiled journalists, along with the rise of new independent voices on digital platforms. These developments offer a glimmer of hope for a freer and more open media environment. However, this progress is unfolding in a digital ecosystem where trust remains fragile, and recent regulatory reforms have drawn mixed reactions. The report also points to a sharp increase in content production. In August 2024 alone, over 136,000 articles were published, most of them online, representing a 23.7% year-on-year increase. This surge spans multiple languages, reflecting growing momentum as Morocco prepares to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal. Digital Platforms Dominate News Consumption The internet has become the primary source of news for most Moroccans, with 78% of respondents saying they rely on it. Social media and messaging apps play a central role in this shift. YouTube is now the most-used news source (49%), followed by Facebook (47%), Instagram (32%), and TikTok (24%). WhatsApp groups are also widely used for news sharing (30%), alongside Telegram, which is gaining ground. Yet this shift to digital has brought new challenges, chief among them, the spread of misinformation. More than half of respondents (54%) say they struggle to tell real news from fake online. Digital influencers are seen as the main culprits (52%), followed by local politicians (30%). Social platforms and video apps have fueled the rise of a new generation of content creators who are reshaping how news is produced and consumed, particularly among young people. YouTube, in particular, has become a hub for bloggers, political commentators, and influencers, some of whom test the limits of acceptable discourse in Moroccan public life. Despite the growth in digital engagement, trust in news remains low in Morocco, among the lowest globally. According to the report, only 28% of respondents said they trust the news. Many cite a lack of media independence and the tendency of outlets to avoid sensitive issues or echo official government positions.
Gulf Today
3 days ago
- Business
- Gulf Today
Poll finds public turning to AI bots for news updates
People are increasingly turning to generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to follow day-to-day news, a respected media report published on Tuesday found. The yearly survey from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found 'for the first time' that significant numbers of people were using chatbots to get headlines and updates, director Mitali Mukherjee wrote. Attached to Britain's Oxford University, the Reuters Institute annual report is seen as unmissable for people following the evolution of media. Just seven per cent of people report using AI to find news, according to the poll of 97,000 people in 48 countries, carried out by YouGov. But the proportion is higher among the young, at 12 per cent of under-35s and 15 per cent of under-25s. The biggest-name chatbot - OpenAI's ChatGPT - is the most widely used, followed by Google's Gemini and Meta's Llama. Respondents appreciated relevant, personalised news from chatbots. Many more used AI to summarise (27 per cent), translate (24 per cent) or recommend (21 per cent) articles, while almost one in five asked questions about current events. Distrust remains, with those polled on balance saying AI risked making the news less transparent, less accurate and less trustworthy. Rather than being programmed, today's powerful AI 'large language models' (LLMs) are 'trained' on vast quantities of data from the web and other sources - including news media like text articles or video reports. Once trained, they are able to generate text and images in response to users' natural-language queries. But they present problems including 'hallucinations' - the term used when AI invents information that fits patterns in their training data but is not true. Scenting a chance at revenue in a long-squeezed market, some news organisations have struck deals to share their content with developers of AI models. Agence France-Presse (AFP) allows the platform of French AI firm Mistral to access its archive of news stories going back decades. Other media have launched copyright cases against AI makers over alleged illegal use of their content, for example the New York Times against ChatGPT developer OpenAI. The Reuters Institute report also pointed to traditional media - TV, radio, newspapers and news sites - losing ground to social networks and video-sharing platforms. Almost half of 18-24-year-olds report that social media like TikTok is their main source of news, especially in emerging countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand. The institute found that many are still using Elon Musk-owned social media platform X for news, despite a rightward shift since the world's richest man took it over. 'Many more right-leaning people, notably young men, have flocked to the network, while some progressive audiences have left or are using it less frequently,' the authors wrote. Some 23 per cent of people in the United States reported using X for news, up eight per cent on 2024's survey, with usage also rising in countries like Australia and Poland. By contrast, 'rival networks like Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon are making little impact globally, with reach of two percent or less for news', the Reuters Institute found. FACSIMILES OF THE DEAD: Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road range incident in 2021. On May 8, 2025, at the sentencing hearing for his killer, an AI video reconstruction of Pelkey delivered a victim impact statement. The trial judge reported being deeply moved by this performance and issued the maximum sentence for manslaughter. As part of the ceremonies to mark Israel's 77th year of independence on April 30, 2025, officials had planned to host a concert featuring four iconic Israeli singers. All four had died years earlier. The plan was to conjure them using AI-generated sound and video. The dead performers were supposed to sing alongside Yardena Arazi, a famous and still very much alive artist. In the end Arazi pulled out, citing the political atmosphere, and the event didn't happen. In April, the BBC created a deep-fake version of the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie to teach a 'maestro course on writing.' Fake Agatha would instruct aspiring murder mystery authors and 'inspire' their 'writing journey.' The use of artificial intelligence to 'reanimate' the dead for a variety of purposes is quickly gaining traction. Over the past few years, the moral implications of AI is under study at the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and these AI reanimations are found to be morally problematic. The first moral quandary the technology raises has to do with consent: Would the deceased have agreed to do what their likeness is doing? Would the dead Israeli singers have wanted to sing at an Independence ceremony organized by the nation's current government? Agencies
