As the media landscape continues to evolve, particularly in the context of rapid technological advancements and shifting audience expectations, Asian newsrooms face new challenges and opportunities. This discussion explores how these factors are reshaping journalism in Asia and what this means for the future of news reporting and consumption.
Our panel of distinguished experts includes Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the School of Journalism and lead author of the Digital News Report 2024; Zuraidah Ibrahim, Executive Managing Editor, The South China Morning Post; Govindraj Ethiraj, Founder, IndiaSpend & BOOMLive; Esther Ng, Chief Content Officer, Star Media Group Bhd; Ong Hwee Hwee, Associate Editor & Head (Product & Tech/Visualisation), The Straits Times; and Antoine Calendrier, APAC Vice Chair of Corporate Crisis & Trust Services, Edelman.
or wanting to know more about the media landscape in specific markets.
Watch an overview of the report’s key findings with Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate, Reuters Institute and Lead Author of the report.
There is a further decline in the use of Facebook for news, and a growing reliance on messaging apps and video networks. Facebook news consumption (37%) is down 4 percentage points across all countries in the last year. Video is becoming a more important source of online news, with short news videos accessed by 66% of the global sample each week.
Concern about what is real and what is fake on the internet when it comes to online news has risen by 3 percentage points in the last year with around six in ten (59%) saying they are concerned.
As publishers embrace the use of AI, there is widespread public suspicion about how it might be used, especially for ‘hard’ news stories such as politics or war. There is more comfort with the use of AI in behind-the-scenes tasks such as transcription and translation; in supporting rather than replacing journalists.
The report data show little growth in news subscriptions, with just 17% saying they paid for any online news in the last year, across a basket of 20 richer countries.