The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has released a new factsheet based on data from the annual Digital News Report entitled ‘Digital News Report: Gender & Diversity in Ireland 2016-2021 & Internationally 2021‘.
The analysis examines the gendered aspects of interest and participation in news, as well as the perception of gender in the news. Where possible, the research also examines these matters in the context of socio-economic class categories.
The research was led by Fujo's Dawn Wheatley who worked with Nollaig O'Connor, Eileen Culloty, and Kirsty Park on analysing the data. Dawn discussed the findings in more depth as part of a conversation with Fiona Stack, General Manager of Radio Kerry which can be viewed below.
Among the findings from this analysis were:
- While high-income earners continued to be ‘extremely’ or ‘very interested’ in news in 2021, the gap with low earners is closing. In 2020, there was a 25% difference, compared with 14% in 2021.
- Ireland has a higher percentage of people who said they were ‘extremely’ or ‘very interested’ in news (70%), compared with countries of a similar size e.g. Denmark (51.5%), Austria (67%), and our neighbours in the UK (51.5%). Of these four countries, Irish women had the lowest levels of ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ interested in news (5%), while the UK had the highest (12%).
- Irish women are more likely than Irish men to share news, however Irish men are more likely to share their opinions and comment on news stories.
- Education level also played a role in trust in news material on social media. Those who had low education levels (did not finish secondary school) are more likely to trust news material they see on social media, compared with those with high or medium education, who appeared to be more sceptical.
