News Engagement Increases in 2019

According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer Global Report, self-reported news engagement and sharing has jumped between 2018 and 2019 across the globe. The Trust Barometer asked respondents several questions about their news consumption habits and how frequently they share or post content, averaging their responses across all questions. Edelman broke down those respondents into three categories: Disengaged, Consumers, and Amplifiers. Disengaged respondents were those who interact with news content less than once a week; Consumers were those respondents who consume news on a weekly basis or more; and Amplifiers were those who consume news on at least a weekly basis and share or post content several times a month.

News engagement overall increased in the new year. In 2018, 40 percent of respondents reported consuming news less than once a week. In 2019, that number dropped to 28 percent. Amplifiers, or those who interact with the news and share it frequently, saw the highest increase in global respondents with four in ten respondents falling into that category in 2019, up from about a quarter of respondents in 2018. The responses from Edelman's report align with similar findings of rebounding trust in the news from Gallup.