Will the 'neutral news consumer' still exist?

At the end of June, the Dutch Media Authority (CvdM) announced the Digital News Report Netherlands 2021 released. This report provides a unique picture of the impact of COVID-19 on Dutch news use. Below are some striking insights from the report. As you might expect, Corona has partly ensured that the digitization of news use has accelerated. Respondents more often get their news from online sources. What is less obvious – in this age of fear of 'fake news' – is the fact that overall trust in news has actually increased.

A short recap. According to the report, trust in Dutch news has been stable for years and the Netherlands scores high compared to other countries studied. 59 percent of respondents indicate that they trust the news they read. Trust is even higher among people who use a specific medium. According to the report, it seems that if people have good basic trust in a medium, this is not immediately affected by current events.

Unfortunately, this does not map the entire picture.

It is good news that the number of people who trust the news has increased, but the report also shows that the number of people who are neutral about the news has decreased. This means that the number of people who have become less trusting of the news has increased. The neutral buffer has fallen sharply. This confidence has decreased, especially among young people. The fact that, on the one hand, trust in the media as a whole has increased, and on the other hand, a larger group no longer trusts the media, is probably the result of greater polarization. It seems that people have formed a stronger opinion during Corona.

In a well-functioning democracy, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and at the same time it is very important that we collectively have a certain degree of confidence in our institutions. The disappearance of the neutral news consumer and an increasingly deepening gap between 'believers' and 'non-believers' is therefore worrying. In any case, I think it emphasizes that we must teach children from an early age to look critically at any form of information, but also to learn to understand the basic principles and value of independent journalism. The CvdM research once again proves the need for media literacy in our schools.